The Looking Glass Wars
by A Spot of Bother
Summary: AU. Once upon a time, there was a boy who was pulled into a world and a war not of his making, a world where the heroes were not always virtuous and innocence was no guarantee of survival. /Rated for language and violence./
1. One

(A/N): I might be shooting myself in the foot here, trying to juggle two multi-chapter works at the same time, but I'm going to try. I was browsing through some KH forums, and someone mentioned the fact that most AU fics take place in the "real" world - there's none of the fantasy that's inherent in the games. Well, my brain apparently ran with it and decided it wanted to write something resembling a twisted fairy tale - maybe something from the darker side of the original folk tales recorded by the Grimm brothers. I also wanted to write something that incorporated Sora much more deeply into the story line than anything I've attempted before, because, let's face it - he's a bit of an underused character for me. It should be noted that this work is not affiliated with the series by Frank Beddor (which I've never read) in any way, and any similarities between the two are the fault of coincidence. Let me know what you guys think!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters depicted in the Kingdom Hearts series.

One

_There was smoke everywhere. His eyes and lungs burned with it – the very world seemed to be set ablaze. The air was filled with the inhuman cries of their enemy, an almost claustrophobic cacophony pressing in on him from all sides. His weapons were heavy and clumsy in his hands, but still he fought, a grim determination burning in his veins._

_A claw-tipped hand swept under his guard, grazed his side, slicing both cloth and flesh. With a dry hiss, he turned and smashed his blade down into the top of the thing's head, wrenching it free as it began to dissolve into a filmy black wisp. Spinning away from the decomposing body, he swept his weapons in a deadly arc, opening a narrow avenue of escape. He ran._

_Ruined buildings flashed past him in rapid sequence; he planted one booted foot in the niche of a crumbling wall and leapt into the air, up away from his pursuers. He reached the apex of his jump quickly, twisting in the air to survey what he could of the battlefield. His soldiers were spread out beneath him, locked in battle with the shadows slowly sweeping across the city. A sudden roiling explosion of flame to the southeast betrayed the location of at least one of his comrades, and then he was falling back toward the horde of monsters rising to meet him._

Sora wrenched himself upright with a thin cry, holding his arms in front of his face as if to stave off a blow. When he recognized the banal trappings of his own room, he flopped back down onto the pillow with a harsh sigh. "Not again," he muttered, shivering slightly at the feel of the chilly air on his damp skin. He reached down and grabbed the blankets he'd thrown off in his earlier panic, drawing them up around his shoulders again. His gaze roamed the familiar contours of the room, probing the dark spill of shadows as he waited for his pulse to stop beating in his ears.

Something with yellow eyes peered at him from underneath his dresser. Sora's heart stopped, then began to beat double-time. "You're not real," he whispered. The thing under the dresser blinked its large eyes, the only part of it Sora could make out, but offered no response. "You're not," Sora repeated, his voice a little stronger. He squeezed his eyes closed, hands tightening into fists around his blankets. "You're _not_."

The thing was gone when he opened his eyes.

He stared at the spot it had been for a moment before he flung the covers back and reached for the lamp on his night stand. Light flooded the room, and Sora's heartbeat immediately began to settle back into its proper rhythm. His Struggle bat was propped against the foot of his bed, and Sora hefted it in both hands as he advanced on the dresser.

No inhuman voices whispered to him. No hooked claw shot out to grab his ankle. Taking a deep breath, Sora dropped to one knee and thrust the makeshift weapon underneath the dresser. The only resistance he met was the wall. Feeling bolder, he set the bat on the floor next to his hand and bent over further, pressing his cheek to the carpet so he could peer into the narrow space. It was deserted.

All the strength went out of his limbs and he sprawled on his stomach, hugging the carpet as he tried to fight down a giddy fit of laughter. "You're not there," he mumbled, grinning. "I told you you weren't." He remained where he was for a while, letting the nap of the carpet whisper across his cheek as he convulsed in silent laughter.

When he felt calmer he pushed himself up, bending to retrieve the Struggle bat before he made a slow circuit of the rest of the room. Nothing was out of place, and the shadows were only that – shadows. He returned to his bed and drew the blankets up around his shoulders before reaching out and flicking the light off. He slid the Struggle bat underneath his pillow. It was uncomfortable, but he left it there, one hand wrapped tightly around the handle.

* * *

"Hello? Earth to Sora. Come in, Sora."

Sora twitched and raised his eyes from the textbook he'd been pretending to read. "Hmm?"

Kairi sighed and shook her head at him from across the room. "You haven't heard a word we've said, have you?"

Sora closed his book and offered her an abashed smile. "Sorry, guys."

They were spread around Riku's living room, the books and notes for the homework they were supposed to be working on piled in drifts around them. Riku was sprawled at the other end of the couch, his blue tie hanging loose and crooked. Kairi was seated in the overstuffed armchair, her legs tucked primly beneath her and her uniform's skirt smoothed over her knees. They were both regarding him with identical expressions of amused exasperation. Kairi huffed and smoothed a stray piece of auburn hair off of her forehead. "We were talking about going out to the island tomorrow. The three of us, before it starts getting too chilly."

Sora's embarrassed smile brightened. "Tomorrow? That'd be great! Oh man, it feels like we haven't been out there in forever."

Riku snorted, one arm tucked behind his head as he regarded Sora from beneath lowered lids. "We were out there two weeks ago." Sora pulled a face at him and made a half-hearted effort to punch his shin. Riku pulled his leg away from him, then settled it back into place when Sora didn't move to try and hit him again. "Nice, Sora." Sora stuck his tongue out at him for good measure.

"Knock it off, you guys." Laughter sang just underneath Kairi's voice, but the two boys immediately turned away from each other, Riku gazing blandly at the ceiling as Sora crossed his arms and mock-glared at the blank television screen.

"It's not _my_ fault someone's a dork," he declared loudly.

"We know, but we don't hold it against you," Riku returned, smirking. Sora gave a loud war cry and turned on the other teen, batting him about the head and shoulders with the nearest throw pillow.

"Guys! _Guys_!" Giving up on getting their attention by peaceable means, Kairi unfolded herself from the chair and waded into the fray. She managed to grab a corner of the pillow as Sora brought it down on Riku's head, and the three of them tussled over it until Kairi wrenched it away. "We're _supposed_ to be working on the reading assignment," she panted out, grinning.

"Oh, c'mon, Kairi," Sora wheedled, putting on his best smile. "We've got the weekend."

"She's right. You should start now," Riku said, yelling and rolling off the couch when Sora dove for him. Sora followed him down, and Kairi beat the pillow over the both of them as they wrestled on the floor.

Ten minutes later the front door opened and closed, and Riku's mother poked her head into the room to find all three of them slumped across various pieces of furniture, panting and grinning. "_What_ are you kids doing in here?" she asked.

"Homework," Riku answered. The three friends looked at each other and simultaneously broke into fresh fits of laughter. Riku's mom arched an eyebrow in silent question, then apparently decided she didn't want to know. Shaking her head, she turned and headed toward the kitchen.

"Well all right, but it's starting to get late."

"Okay."

Sora sighed as the last of his laughter died away, sweeping his bangs out of his eyes and snuggling a little more deeply into the cushions beneath him. "Okay, okay, so when do you guys want to go tomorrow?"

"Nine?" Kairi suggested, settling herself demurely in the armchair once again. Sora groaned.

"C'mon, Kairi, it's _Saturday_," he protested.

"How about ten?" Riku asked, stretching his arms over his head in a lazy yawn.

"Yeah, that sounds better," Sora said with a grin. He glanced out the window, then down at his watch before bending to retrieve his school bag. "I've gotta run, guys. My mom'll be home soon."

"I should go, too," Kairi sighed, standing and smoothing her skirt.

Riku grunted and pulled himself to his feet to follow them out. "All right." Sora and Kairi both made a detour through the kitchen to say goodbye to Riku's mom, and she gave each of them a cookie for the road. Sora took his with a grin. This was part of the reason they always seemed to wind up at Riku's house – not only was his home the closest to Trinity High School, but (and Sora would never actually admit this to his own mother) Riku's mom made the absolute _best_ cookies.

"See you guys tomorrow," Riku called after them as he and Kairi reached the end of his driveway. Kairi spun on her heel, smiling and waving. Sora merely waved over his shoulder, happily munching on his cookie.

The late afternoon light painted everything in warm hues, and as they walked they lifted their faces to the cool breeze coming in off the water. "Did you finish your biology project yet?" Kairi asked, letting her eyes slide closed and smiling as a particularly brisk gust of wind swept past them.

"Not yet," Sora mumbled, licking the crumbs from his fingers.

"It's due next Friday."

"I know."

"Lazy."

Sora hummed and smiled at the familiar accusation. "That's me," he agreed. Kairi laughed gently, and they lapsed into silence. Sora paused as they reached the end of his driveway. "So, see you tomorrow."

"Mm." Kairi glanced over her shoulder in the direction they'd come from, then placed her fingers lightly against Sora's wrist, halting him before he could walk away. "Sora?"

Sora frowned slightly at her expression. "What?"

Kairi's eyes met and held his. "Is something…bothering you?" Sora remained silent, too startled to speak, and Kairi's fingers pressed into his skin with a little more force. "Riku didn't want to say anything, but… Well, Riku's Riku, but we've both noticed you've been a little…strange lately."

Sora forced himself to smile. "You guys are imagining things. _Really_," he added when she remained silent. "I'm fine." Kairi peered up at him for another second before she stepped back.

"Okay. If you're sure…"

"I'm fine," Sora repeated, thumping one fist against his chest to illustrate his point. He felt immeasurably relieved when Kairi smiled.

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Sora mumbled through numb lips. "See you."

* * *

He met his mom in the short hall that led from the front door to the living room. "Hi sweetie. How was school?"

Sora shrugged as she bent and planted a light kiss on his forehead. "It was school." He kicked his shoes off and left them beside the front door before trailing her toward the living room. "How was work?"

She glanced at him as she reached up to unpin her dark blonde hair. Her eyes were the same brilliant shade of blue as Sora's, and the first faint signs of crow's feet warmed into laugh lines as she smiled. "It was work." Her smile slipped a little as she got a better look at his expression. "Do you feel all right, honey?"

"Yeah. I'm just a little tired."

"Well, why don't you go lie down for a little bit?" she suggested, slipping out of her low pumps. "Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes, okay?"

"Okay."

"Remember to wash up before you come back down," she called after him as he turned toward the stairs.

Once he was in his room, Sora shut the door firmly behind him. Tossing his school bag onto the seat of his desk chair, he sank down onto his mattress, glancing at the place beneath his dresser from which the thing with the yellow eyes had looked out at him the night before. There was nothing there. He flopped backward with a sigh, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars he'd pasted to the ceiling when he was eight and never gotten around to removing.

The nightmares had begun almost a month ago, but they hadn't worried him at first. Growing boys with active imaginations were bound to have the occasional bad dream, weren't they? Of course they were. It was perfectly normal. Seeing the black things from his dreams while awake _wasn't_. That wasn't the experience of a growing boy with an active imagination. That was the experience of a crazy person.

His mind drifted back to his latest nightmare – the stark, unremitting realism of it and the glowing eyes that had followed him into the waking world. "It's not real," he said, feeling slightly foolish speaking to the empty room. When nothing answered him he turned onto his side, drawing his legs up onto the bed and curling into a tight ball.

* * *

"Sora! Dinner!"

Sora twitched and opened his eyes, thoughts muzzy. He hadn't meant to fall asleep.

"Sora?"

"'M coming, mom!" Sora yelled back, levering himself upright. Rubbing the heel of one hand into his right eye, he cast a quick glance at his dresser. Nothing there. Sora blew his bangs out of his eyes and stood, reaching up to pull his tie off and flinging it to the side as he headed for the hallway.

"Sorry," he called down the stairs as he descended. "I fell asleep." His mother hummed a response at him from the kitchen, and Sora glanced into the living room as he reached the foot of the stairs. "Where's dad?"

"He's working late again. Can you set the table, please?"

"Sure."

Sora moved past his mom, who was standing at the stove and scooping the last of the stir-fry out of the pan and onto a serving plate. Her hair was loose and her feet were bare against the green linoleum. "Thank you, honey." She grabbed a large bowel of white rice and turned toward the small dining room. "Grab the vegetables on your way out, would you?" Sora nodded as he pulled two plates down from the cupboard, and his mom smiled and disappeared through the low archway.

Gathering the silverware and glasses onto the plates, Sora snagged the steaming dish of vegetables and carefully made his way to the table. His mother glanced up with a smile as he edged his way into the room. "Are you sure you don't want something else to carry? We could sell tickets."

"Ha, ha."

"Do you want some milk?"

"Soda?" he asked hopefully, carefully lowering his armload onto the tablecloth.

"Milk it is," she said, smiling at his expression. "You'll thank me when you're all grown up with all your own teeth still in your head." She ruffled his hair affectionately as she brushed past him, and Sora sighed and set out the plates and silverware. A minute later she was back, a pitcher of milk in her hand. "Okay. Dig in." She set the milk on the table and they both took their seats, passing the serving dishes back and forth.

"Take another spoonful of string beans, dear."

"_Mom_."

"Well, you know I'm always going to say it. Why don't you just do it the first time?" Sora mumbled under his breath, but he added another spoonful of vegetables to his existing pile. "There, now. Was that so hard?"

"Exhausting," Sora said solemnly. His mother almost managed to hide her smile behind her glass.

"So do you have any plans this weekend?"

Sora swallowed his mouthful of food and nodded. "We're going to go out to the island tomorrow."

"All day?"

Sora shrugged. "I guess."

"Well, don't forget you said you'd help me put the patio furniture in the shed sometime."

"I know."

"All right. Will you need a lunch tomorrow?"

"I don't know."

She continued to ask him questions about his day, his schoolwork, his friends, and Sora took comfort in the quiet normalcy of it all. When they were finished eating he offered to clear the table, but his mom waved him off. "You've got a full day ahead of you tomorrow, and you're still looking a little pale. I think you'd be better served heading to bed, young man."

"Okay. Thanks, mom."

"Mm-hmm." She bent over as she retrieved his plate and pecked him on the temple. "Sleep well."

Sora hid a yawn and grinned up at her sheepishly. "Night."

"Good night, honey."

Sora pushed himself away from the table and headed for the stairs, scratching idly at his temple as he yawned again, loudly. His mother's voice followed him from the kitchen: "Cover your mouth when you yawn." Sora grinned and stretched, lacing his hands on the top of his head as he climbed the stairs.

He was passing the mirror in the hall when he froze, staring in disbelief and a sickly sort of dawning horror. His reflection had been usurped by a boy with blond hair, framed behind the glass from the chest up. He was dressed in dark clothing, and he had one gloved hand pressed to his side of the mirror.

He didn't have any eyes. Empty sockets that were little more than dark wounds in his face seemed to extend back into a blackness deeper than that found at the edge of the universe, but Sora knew the thing in the mirror could see him. He shuffled a step to the side and the boy's head turned to track him. Sora reached out a hand to lay it against the glass, then lost his nerve and tucked it against his chest. "You're not real," he whispered, voice shaking.

The boy's mouth moved, but it seemed to Sora his voice sprang from within his own mind. _"Time's running out."_

"You're not really there," Sora insisted, squeezing his eyes shut. "You're not, you're not, you're not." From somewhere far away, water began running into the kitchen sink. He opened his eyes. The boy was gone. His own reflection stared back at him, eyes wide and startled.

When he lay down to sleep, he brought the Struggle bat into his bed again.

* * *

The next morning Sora bolted out of bed at nine-fifty. He'd lain awake half the night, gaze continually traversing the dark recesses of his room, but no yellow eyes had peered at him from the shadows, and his sleep had been untroubled by dreams. When he glanced at his mirror, the eyes looking back at him were his own. Hurriedly dressing in black swim trunks and sandals, he dragged a Besaid Aurochs t-shirt over his unruly hair as he banged down the stairs. "Where's the fire?" his mom inquired mildly from the living room as his sandals skidded on the hardwood floor.

"I said I'd meet Riku and Kairi at the docks," Sora said, tugging the hem of his shirt down. "I'll see you later, I love you, bye!" She tried to call something after him, but it was lost in the slam of the front door and the sound of his feet slapping against the ground.

Riku and Kairi were already at the edge of the pier when Sora jogged up to them, holding a hand against the stitch in his side. "Sorry," he gasped out. "Overslept."

Riku's lips dipped down in a slight frown as he shifted his rucksack from one hand to the other. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine." Sora took a few deep breaths and tentatively lowered his hand from his side. Riku and Kairi exchanged looks, and he frowned. "Really, guys – I'm fine. I just overslept is all." He clapped his hands together and forced a smile. "C'mon, we're already behind schedule. Let's get going already." Riku continued to stare at him. "What?"

"Didn't you bring any lunch?"

Sora's mouth flapped uselessly for a moment before he scowled and crossed his arms. "Ah, shoot." They stared at him for another moment before Kairi stepped forward, linking her arm with his.

"That's all right. I packed some extra. We can share." Sora didn't miss the look she threw over her shoulder at Riku as they headed down the pier to where their small rowboat was docked.

The trip out to the island was silent save for the creak of the oars and the waves splashing against the wooden hull. Sora pulled grimly on his oar and pretended he didn't notice Kairi watching him from beneath lowered lids, or Riku stealing worried glances at him out of the corner of his eye.

When they reached the small pier, Sora jumped out and caught the rope Riku threw him, tying off the small craft with neat, precise motions. He stepped back as his two friends clambered up onto the pier with him.

"_So_." His voice came out a bit too loudly, and Sora winced inwardly and strove to bring it back under control. "What do you guys wanna do first?" There was a moment of silence, and Sora could see both of them struggling with whether they should say something or simply play along. Then Riku reached into his rucksack and brought out a blitzball. He cocked an eyebrow at Sora, and the dark-haired boy felt a grin stealing across his face. "Oh, you're _on_."

They hit the water at the same time.

* * *

When they splashed to shore an hour later, Kairi was sitting on the steps that led to the secret place, carefully threading a small pile of puka shells onto a thin cord. Their belongings were piled neatly beside her. She glanced up and smiled as they approached. "So who won?"

Sora huffed and glanced to the side, crossing his arms across his chest. "Riku."

Kairi's smile spread. "Ah. Well then it's a good thing this is a consolation prize for the runner-up." She lifted the unfinished project and the shells clacked quietly against one another. Riku rolled his eyes and grabbed his rucksack from where it was resting beside her.

"Should I leave you two alone?"

Kairi wrinkled her nose as a few drops of water fell on her bare leg. "Nobody likes a sore winner, Riku," she admonished in a singsong voice, digging her toes a little further into the sand. Riku snorted and sank down on the steps beside her, propping his elbows back on the top step and tilting his face up into the sun. Kairi poked a stiff finger into his side. "Hey! Watch the shells – it took me a long time to find all of those." Riku's expression was one of long-suffering tolerance as he obediently scooted to the side.

Sora snickered and moved to sit on Kairi's other side. "Man, she's got you whipped."

Riku eyed him with a lazy sort of arrogance. "Look who's talking."

Kairi rolled her eyes as she slid another shell onto the length of cord. "_Fascinating_ as this conversation is," she interrupted, "am I the only one who's hungry? You guys abandoned me without telling me where you hid the food…_Riku_."

For a moment the silver-haired teen really did look abashed. "Sorry."

"Mm-_hmm_."

"Someone's in trouble," Sora sang, grinning at the look Riku shot him.

"You two could bicker like an old married couple," Kairi interjected before they could get going again, "or we could eat. I vote for eating." She glanced up at the sudden silence, a light blush staining her cheeks when she saw the way their eyes were shining. "Oh, shut up." Sora burst out laughing, and she thumped him on the shoulder, expression slightly peeved. A smirk tugged at the edge of Riku's lips, but he managed to contain himself. "You guys are jerks," Kairi informed them, carefully tying off the ends of the shell-laced cord before standing and scooping up the remaining shells in one hand and Riku's rucksack in the other.

"Aw, c'mon Kairi, we didn't mean it!" Sora shouted as she stomped toward the shed.

"I'm eating your share of the food!" she shot back over her shoulder, but they could both hear her smile in her voice. Riku and Sora glanced at each other, grinning, before they pushed themselves up off the steps and trailed after her, the sand sticking to their feet and ankles.

She was at the base of the twisted paopu tree when they caught her, trying to extract a blanket from the mess in Riku's rucksack. "How much did you _pack_, Riku?" she inquired, not raising her eyes. Riku shrugged and nudged her to the side, kneeling next to the open bag and slipping the blanket free of its surroundings. He handed it over to Kairi, and Sora stepped forward to help her fan it open across the sand. Riku pulled out five Tupperware dishes and pried off the lids before setting four of them around the corners of the blanket to keep the breeze from blowing it away.

"Okay," he sighed, drawing the rucksack's draw chord closed. "That's it."

"Well, thanks Riku, but what are you going to eat?" Sora inquired innocently, sitting down cross-legged next to a container piled high with fruit salad.

"_Ugh_." Kairi thrust a drumstick in his face, almost bopping him on the nose. "Shut up and eat."

* * *

When the food was gone and the containers and blanket were safely back inside the rucksack, Riku and Sora sprawled around the base of the twisted tree, watching the light refract over the water as they began the process of digestion with contented sighs. "Kairi, I'm gonna marry your mom for her cooking," Sora groaned, patting his stomach fondly.

The redhead glanced down at him from her perch on the paopu's trunk, one delicate brow arched. "She'll be thrilled," she mumbled dryly, threading another shell onto what was now clearly meant to eventually be a necklace. Riku snorted, and they lapsed back into silence. Sora lay back and laced his hands behind his head, his eyes falling closed as he let the heat of the sun beating down on him and the fullness of his belly lull him toward sleep.

"'S nice out here," he mumbled. The other two hummed an agreement, and Sora let the darkness carry him away.

The sun was sinking toward the water when Kairi shook him awake. She smiled when he woke with a start, blinking up at her owlishly. "We're getting ready to go," she said, tucking a stray strand of hair back behind one ear. "Riku's already left for the boat."

Sora groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position. "How long was I asleep?" he asked, wiping a hand across his eyes. Kairi shrugged.

"A couple hours."

"What? Why –?"

"You looked like you needed it," Kairi said softly. Her eyes caught his. They glowed in the warm light.

Sora flushed and glanced away, scratching self-consciously at the sand in his hair. "Well, thanks," he mumbled.

"Sora…" Kairi's voice trailed off into nothing, and her lips thinned. "Let's go," she said at last, extending her hand. Sora grabbed it and let her haul him to his feet – the ease with which she pulled him upright never ceased to surprise him. He brushed at the sand in his hair again, and she smiled and reached a hand up to sweep the tiny granules from his shoulder. Her fingers were cool against his sun-warmed skin.

Riku's voice sounded from the direction of the pier. "Get a room, you two!"

They both jumped, sharing grins shaded with embarrassment, before Kairi dug the necklace of puka shells out of the pocket hidden in the pleats of her skirt. "Here," she said, reaching up and knotting the string around his neck. "It's not finished yet… I couldn't find enough shells."

Sora fingered the string of shells resting against his collarbone. "It's fine, Kairi. Thanks."

"I guess I'm the only one going back to shore!"

Sora glanced down the short beach to where Riku was standing ankle-deep in the water, hands on his hips and head cocked to the side. "Jeez, keep your shirt on, okay? We're coming!"

Kairi's fingers slipped into his, squeezing gently, before she whirled and bolted for the steps leading back down to the beach. "Last one there's a rotten Tonberry!" she called over her shoulder.

"Hey, no fair! You had a head start!" Feet scrabbling for purchase in the loose sand, Sora started after her, and in that moment shadows made solid and boys that appeared in mirrors seemed so far removed from his own life that they might as well have been part of someone else's.


	2. Two

(A/N): Not much to say, except writing for Sora is definitely different, and I'm still learning. But I am loving every minute of it.

Disclaimer: I'm too tired to find a creative way to say I don't own these characters.

Two

Sora lay on his back, fingers laced behind his head as he gazed at the shadowed ceiling, making up constellations among the pasted stars. The breeze drifting through the open window brought with it the smell of the sea and the sound of the cicadas' song; he could hear his father snoring in the other room. The shells Kairi had given him were a cool weight against his clavicles.

He turned his head and stared out at the patch of sky visible through his window. The stars twinkled coldly in their icy prisons, and he wondered idly how many light-years it had taken their brittle sparkle to reach the islands.

One of the stars blinked out.

Sora blinked and frowned, pushing himself up to rest on his elbows as he peered at where he thought the pinprick of light had been. "What…" He screwed his features into a squint, tilting his head to the side as he considered the sky. Had he imagined it?

The star winked back into existence as he watched, guttered feebly for a few seconds, then disappeared again. Sora stared at the space it had been for a long time, doing his best not to blink, but it didn't reappear. Finally, feeling vaguely disquieted, he pushed himself all the way up, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. Stars didn't just…burn out, did they?

He thought he saw something move in the shadows from the corner of his eye. He whirled around, almost dislodging himself from his perch on the mattress. There was nothing there. He glanced back out the window, but could no longer tell from where in that glittering canopy the star had vanished.

Maybe it was a satellite. His brow smoothed as he turned that thought over in his mind. A satellite… That could make sense. "Sure," he said, startling himself with the sound of his own voice. He let loose a self-deprecating laugh, wiping a hand over his eyes. "It was a satellite. Just a satellite."

There was a pause in the tempo of the snoring coming from the other room, then his dad gave a great snort and resumed his previous steady rhythm. Sora shook his head and laughed again, letting his fingers travel up to massage gently at his temple. "Just a satellite." With one last look out the window, he reached up and untied the cord around his neck. He settled the shells carefully on his nightstand, smiling as they whispered against one another, before rolling back onto his back. His eyes roamed the shadowed reaches of his room, and he reached out with one hand, sighing when his fingers encountered the edge of his Struggle bat.

He fell asleep with the feel of the timeworn wood beneath the pads of his fingers.

He woke sometime in the small hours of the morning, heart pounding with the effects of a nightmare he couldn't quite remember. _The Queen…the White Queen…_ The thought flashed through his mind and was gone before he could contemplate its meaning. "What?" he croaked at the ceiling, mind still muddled from sleep.

Nothing answered him. He flopped over onto his side with a grunt, surveying the room with one eye, keeping the other pressed into the pillow. His hand unerringly found the Struggle bat, but no eyes glowed at him from the dark recesses of his room. _The White Queen…_ Sora groaned and pushed his face a little further into his pillow, releasing his hold on the bat. "Go away," he mumbled, only half-aware that he'd spoken.

He was almost asleep again when the fact that he had to use the bathroom trickled down into his consciousness. For a second he considered ignoring it and allowing himself to fall all the way asleep, but when he rolled back onto his back, the weight of his bladder pulled him upright with a groan.

Swiping his hair out of his eyes, Sora gave into a giant yawn as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He left the bat where it was as he shoved himself to a standing position, swaying in place for a moment before taking his first staggering step toward the door.

The hallway was silent as he made his way to the bathroom, only stubbing his toe once on the doorframe as he fumbled for the light switch. The sudden, harsh glare of the fluorescent light set above the mirror made him squint, and he shielded his eyes with one hand as he stepped up to the toilet.

When he was finished he flushed and stepped back, resettling his boxers on his hips as he turned back toward the hallway. His breath backed up in his throat when he caught a flash of movement behind the mirror-fronted medicine cabinet.

His pulse was suddenly thundering in his ears. He swallowed in a throat gone dry and inched forward, hands balled into fists at his sides. The blond boy from the day before somehow managed to regard him calmly from the other side of the glass, empty sockets fixed steadily on Sora's face.

For a second Sora froze, mind whirling sickeningly. Had the thing in the mirror been there when he'd entered the room? He'd been half-blinded by the sudden light, had entered with his head down and one hand sheltering his eyes; he hadn't noticed the mirror at all.

The apparition's lips curved upward in a vaguely mocking expression, as if he were following Sora's thoughts and found them amusing. Sora felt a dull flush creeping up the back of his neck, and suddenly the thought that that _thing_ might've been present the entire time, that he'd been there while Sora had been engaged in a fundamentally private business, ignited a cold flare of anger that burned away his fear.

"What do you _want_?" he ground out, voice breaking on the last syllable. The boy's mocking smile only grew, and the way it crinkled the edges of his empty eye sockets made Sora's mind and stomach give an unpleasant lurch. "You…sick…" Voice disintegrating into a low growl, Sora reached out and grasped the edge of the medicine cabinet, wrenching it open so hard that it put a dent in the plaster; he heard the glass crack. "Go _away_!"

In the moment following his outburst Sora became aware of the deathly stillness of the house – he could no longer hear his father's snoring or the chirring of the cicadas. Even the ever-present murmur of the surf beating against the shore was gone. The fear rushed back in and he backed away from the cabinet, arms crossed tightly across his stomach. "Just leave me _alone_," he whispered.

There was a long silence, but Sora could _feel_ the thing in the mirror's presence. When it spoke at last, its tone chilled him to the bone – it was the tone of an adult trying to reason with a difficult child. _"Not yet."_

A low, miserable sound crawled its way up Sora's throat, and he raised his hands and pressed them against his temples. "You're not there," he mumbled, voice shaking.

"_You can't just wish me away."_ The boy's voice sounded amused as it reverberated through Sora's skull; Sora only increased the pressure of the heels of his hands against his temples.

"You _can't_ be there."

Silence. Sora cautiously lowered his hands from his head, eyes locked on the back of the mirror. He wanted to reach out and turn the mirror back toward him, make sure the boy was really gone, but his arms hung limp and useless at his sides.

He left the mirror where it was, cracked against the wall, as he backed out of the bathroom, never taking his eyes off the medicine cabinet. When he got back to his own room, he set every light in the room burning.

* * *

His parents were already in the kitchen when Sora came downstairs early the next morning. His mother had one elbow propped on the table, cupping her chin in her hand as she smiled sleepily at him over a cup of steaming coffee. His dad's usually slicked-back hair, which had recently begun to show strands of gray around his temples, was hanging in his face and dark stubble covered his cheeks and chin; he held the paper in one hand and his cup of coffee in the other. He glanced up as Sora settled himself at the table with a yawn. "Morning, kiddo."

"Morning, dad."

"Heard you went out to the island yesterday."

"Mm."

His dad peered at him over the rim of his coffee cup, brows drawn together. "You feeling okay?"

Sora tried to force a smile, but it felt thin and brittle on his lips. "Yeah. I'm just tired." He'd remained awake for most of the remainder of the night, startling back to consciousness every time his eyes had slipped closed.

"You should go to bed earlier," his mom chided.

Sora hummed a spiritless response and propped his chin in his hands. Features pulling down into a frown, his mom set her coffee aside. "Are you all right, honey?" she asked, laying the back of her hand against his forehead. Sora's eyes slipped closed and she traced her fingers down the side of his face, smoothing his hair off of his brow with her other hand. "You don't feel warm…"

"Probably spent too much time in the sun yesterday," Sora's dad suggested, keeping his eyes trained on his son's face as he took another sip of his coffee.

"Maybe…" His mom's voice trailed off into uncertainty before she leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his temple. "Still, I think you better stay home today, sweetie." She tugged affectionately at an unruly spike of brown hair before turning back toward her coffee.

"Was everything…okay this morning?" Sora asked, gaze sliding back and forth between his parents. They both regarded him with equally puzzled expressions.

"Okay how?" his dad inquired.

Sora shrugged and began to fiddle with the edge of the tablecloth. "I just thought last night… in the bathroom – "

"Oh." His mother's voice interrupted him, and he glanced up to find her fixing him with a hard look. "You were the one in there this morning?"

Sora winced and glanced back down at the table. "Yeah, I'm sorry…"

"Well, no harm done, but you could have lost it down the drain, you know. It isn't like you to be so careless, Sora."

Brows lowering over his eyes in confusion, Sora struggled to follow the direction the conversation had taken. "What…"

"Here." His mother withdrew something small and silver from the pocket of her robe and placed it into Sora's hand. "Just be more careful next time, okay?" Sora stared down at the key chain resting in his palm. It was in the shape of a key, and the cut of the teeth resembled a crown. "Didn't you leave it in the bathroom last night?" his mom prompted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I found it in the sink this morning."

Sora's throat tightened. "Sorry, mom."

His mom laid another cool hand against his forehead. "I really think you should go lie down, honey. You don't look good at all."

"Yeah," Sora mumbled, fingers curling around the metal key chain. He half-expected it to suddenly sear his skin, but it remained cool. He could feel both his parents' eyes on him as he pushed himself back from the table and headed for the stairs. He kept the key chain curled in one fist.

His father's voice followed him up the stairs. "Is he all right?"

"I don't know," his mom sighed. "He's been so tired lately. Do you think he's coming down with something?"

"It's a little early for the flu, isn't it?"

Sora made himself stop listening as he reached the top of the stairs.

His steps slowed as he approached the bathroom. His hand tightened around the metal in his palm, and he made himself peer around the edge of the doorjamb.

The mirror-fronted door of the medicine cabinet, which he'd heard crack against the wall the night before, bounced his own fever-bright eye back at him. His hand convulsively tightened even further, and he felt small metallic teeth cutting into the flesh just below his index and middle fingers. The gouge in the wall had miraculously filled itself in – not the slightest dimple remained to suggest that his brief spate of violence had ever existed.

"_Well after all, it's not real."_

Sora clutched the edge of the door as the mirror-boy's voice echoed in his mind, edged with a dark amusement. He stared, wide-eyed, at the mirror, but the image in the glass remained his own.

"_It's almost time now."_

"Stop it," Sora whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. "Just go away. Leave me alone."

"_You know I won't."_

"Sora?"

Sora jerked and bit down on the scream that wanted to burst out of his throat; whirling around, he found his mother standing at the top of the stairs. "Are you okay, honey?"

"Wha – I…" Sora's voice trailed off into nothing, and he threw another reluctant glance at the mirror. Its innocuous reflection remained unmarred. "Yeah, mom," he muttered. "I'm gonna go lay down – I don't feel so good."

He could feel her eyes on his back as he walked away, and it was all he could do not to run down the hall and slam his bedroom door behind him.

His room, at least, remained the way he'd left it – every light blazing. Sora stood with his back against the door for a moment, eyes traveling along the familiar surroundings. Finally he pushed himself upright and moved over to his bed.

He let himself drop down on the mattress, bouncing slightly, and stared at the hand still curled around the key chain. "It's not real," he muttered, a little frightened at the lack of conviction in his voice. "It _can't_ be real." Nothing answered him, but he could feel the blood between his fingers, cool and slightly tacky from where the key's teeth had cut him.

A gull screamed somewhere out over the water.

Sora shook himself and set the key chain on his nightstand next to Kairi's gift, then stretched out on his mattress and laced his hands behind his head with a sigh.

* * *

_He could hear them in the distance, moving around out there in the darkness from which they took their form. He remained where he was, crouched against the wall with his weapons resting over his shoulder. Warm blood drenched his side, and his hair was plastered to his head underneath his dark hood. His comrades were scattered nearby in varying states of disarray – he could hear the whisper of leather against stone as they turned over in their sleep, the occasional cough._

_They'd finally managed to bring the invasion to a standstill, but not before half the city had fallen. Time was running out._

_He shifted slightly, wincing as his over-taxed muscles protested the movement. There was the soft scrape of a shoe against stone, and his eyes flicked to the right in time to catch a flash of blond hair as one of his superiors flitted across a crumbling doorway. Beyond the shattered doorway, a broken piece of glass caught and reflected the image of his own eyes back at him._

* * *

Sora was pulled out of sleep by a persistent knocking. It took him a few moments of blinking stupidly at the ceiling to realize the sound was real, was in fact coming from his bedroom door.

"Sora?"

Sora groaned and propped himself up on one elbow, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Yeah, mom?"

"Honey, it's after eleven." His door swung inward and his mom poked her head into the room. She'd exchanged her robe for a white sleeveless top and tan slacks. A small groove appeared between her eyebrows. "Why do you have all the lights on?"

"Um…"

Not waiting for an answer, his mother approached the bed. She bent over him and brushed his hair out of his eyes with a soft smile, laying the back of her hand against his forehead. "How you feeling, kiddo?"

Sora shrugged. "Better, I guess," he muttered.

"Good. You don't have to come downstairs if you don't feel up to it, but you can't stay in bed all day. You won't sleep tonight. Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." She bent and kissed his forehead, then turned back toward the door. "Turn off some of these lights, please, honey. Electricity's not free, you know."

"'Kay."

Sora waited until the door had closed behind her to push himself upright, wiping one arm across his eyes. His gaze swept the room three times before he reached out a hesitant hand and switched off his bedside lamp. He froze as soon as the light clicked off, cringing a little, but nothing happened. He slid off the bed and turned off the overhead light, then bent and switched off the emergency flashlight plugged into the wall.

No voices whispered inside his head. No unearthly creatures leapt out at him.

He remained crouched over the flashlight for a moment, head bowed. Then he rose and moved to the open window, leaning his upper body out over the low roof of the porch. He turned his head to the side and pulled the window a little closer to him, studying the translucent reflection of his own eyes, red from lack of sleep and smudged with dark shadows – the same pair of eyes that had peered back at him from underneath a dark hood in the depths of a strangely disquieting dream. "What do you want?" he mumbled under his breath, glaring at his reflection. Nothing answered him.

He shoved the window away from him with a disgruntled sigh and climbed over the ledge, wincing a little at the feel of the almost painfully warm tiles under his bare feet. He took a few careful steps away from the window and lowered himself down onto the roof, lying spread-eagled and closing his eyes against the sun.

The warmth of the shingles underneath his back made him feel empty, almost weightless. He readily let the sensation take him over, until he was suspended somewhere between dozing and true sleep, concentrating on nothing more complex than the shifting patterns of light the sun painted on the back of his eyelids.

"You alive out there?"

Sora cracked an eye open and tilted his head back far enough to see his window. Riku was leaning his elbows against the ledge, dangling two bottles of water from his hands. Aquamarine eyes sparkled as he grinned and shook his head in that way he had that made Sora feel about five. "You're lucky your mom doesn't see you out there. You're supposed to be sick, remember?" Sora found it took too much effort to form a vocal response and settled for a one-shoulder shrug. Riku scoffed and threw a leg over the ledge, ducking his head to get it under the top of the frame. "Got room for one more out there?" Sora mumbled something that might have been assent, and Riku moved to sit beside him, holding out one of the water bottles. "Here."

Sora pulled himself into a sitting position with a groan, taking the proffered bottle and holding it against his forehead. "Thanks. What are you doing here?"

"Well, gee, it's great to see you, too," Riku said dryly, propping his forearms on his knees.

Sora rolled his eyes and imitated the other boy's position. "That's not what I meant," he muttered.

Riku shrugged. "I was in the neighborhood," he said, waving a hand vaguely before unscrewing the top of his water and taking a long gulp. "Your mom let me up. Told me all about how you're dying and everything."

"Mm. And the water?"

"That was your mom. Apparently you need fluids."

Sora snorted. "Yeah, 'cause fluids fix _everything_," he intoned.

Riku gave a non-committal grunt and fell silent, water dangling from one hand as he stared out over the neighboring roofs. Sora lay back again, one arm thrown over his eyes and the other at his side. "Hey, Riku," the brown-haired boy said suddenly, not bothering to remove the arm from across his face. "Can stars burn out?"

If Riku was startled by the question, Sora couldn't tell it in his voice. "Sure. All the time."

"Oh." His lips curved in relief. "Okay."

They were silent for a while. Riku beat a steady metronome against his leg with his water bottle, eyes distant. Eventually he glanced up at the sun, shading his eyes with his free hand. "I've gotta get going," he said, getting carefully to his feet and wiping the dirt from his shorts. "I'll tell your mom you're still alive on my way out."

"Thanks," Sora muttered, blinking at the sudden light as he lowered his arm to push himself up and follow the other boy in.

Riku got one leg over the sill and hesitated, glancing back over his shoulder at Sora. "Are you okay, Sora? I mean – really, are you okay?"

Sora opened his mouth to spout the same assurances he'd given Kairi, then remembered how tired – how _haggard_ – his reflection had been. He closed his mouth again and tugged at a stray spike of hair, frowning. "I've been having these weird dreams lately," he admitted.

Riku's eyes scrutinized his face. "And?"

Sora hesitated, biting at his lower lip before he shrugged. "And nothing. That's it."

Riku frowned, but he didn't pursue the subject. "All right." He ducked under the frame, pulling his other leg in behind him. He took the bottled water Sora handed over to him and stepped back to let the other boy come in. "You think you'll be in school tomorrow?" he asked as Sora slid over the ledge.

"Yeah."

"Okay." Riku set Sora's water on his nightstand, ignoring the way the other boy frowned at him and plucked it back off immediately, wiping at the water ring. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you," Sora echoed as Riku slipped out through his bedroom door. Sora padded over and watched Riku disappear down the stairs, heard his mother's voice pipe up from somewhere below him, and closed the door.

He moved back to his bed and threw himself down face-first, relishing the feel of the cool sheets against his sun-warmed skin. He turned his head to the side and peered at the nightstand with one eye, reaching over the key chain and grabbing the necklace of shells Kairi had made for him. He cupped them in one hand as his eyelids fluttered closed and his conscious mind sank slowly back down into oblivion.

* * *

When he woke the light had taken on the rich hues of late afternoon. Kairi's shells were a warm, damp weight in his palm, and he felt more rested than he had in ages. He pushed himself up on one arm, wiping the sleep from his eyes. His gaze fell on the key chain, still sitting on his nightstand, and he frowned and shoved it in his pocket.

He'd have to figure out where to get rid of it later.

His stomach rumbled its hunger at him, and he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, rubbing absently at one eye. He rambled down the hall on autopilot, calling down the stairs as he descended. "Mom? Dad? Sorry, I fell asleep…" No one answered him, and Sora paused at the base of the stairs, running his hands through his hair and drawing it away from his face. "Mom? Dad? Hello?"

He wandered into the kitchen and his gaze immediately zeroed in on a familiar giant smiley-face magnet on the fridge. A small square of brightly colored paper was held underneath it. Sora yawned and grabbed the paper off of the fridge. It was covered with his mother's neat, square writing.

_Sora –_

_Went out to pick up dinner. We were going to wake you (I asked you not to go back to sleep) but decided to wait. We should be back around five._

Sora checked the digital clock set above the stove. It was quarter of five.

_If you're feeling up to it, please make a salad._

Sora set the paper aside and stretched. He gave the fridge a cursory glance, then turned and headed back up the stairs to wash his hands.

He set the shells on the edge of the sink and reached for the taps. And froze. The boy in the mirror studied him calmly from the other side of the glass, head tilted at a slight angle.

_"Your Light is needed here. Are you ready?"_

His lips curved in a shallow smile as Sora continued to stare at him, mouth dry.

_"Time's up."_

"What?" Sora asked, hating the strain he heard in his voice. The apparition didn't answer; his face turned away from Sora, eyeless sockets seeming to focus on the shower curtain to his left. Almost against his will, Sora's head swiveled to follow the mirror-boy's gaze.

Something moved behind the curtain – it bellied outward before settling back into place with a low susurration of sound. Sora's gaze whipped back to the boy in the mirror, but he gave no indication that he noticed the dark-haired boy's scrutiny. The curtain twitched again; he could hear the _tick_ of claws against porcelain, and a fine sweat broke out all over his body. "Stop it," he whispered. The blond's eyeless gaze shifted back to Sora's face, but he made no comment.

Sora stared at the apparition for what felt like forever, the curtain still billowing in the periphery of his vision. Finally he reached out and jerked the shower curtain to the side in one rough movement.

A dozen glowing yellow eyes stared out at him from the bottom of the tub, and Sora stumbled back with a small cry. The tub was filled with…shadows. Sora couldn't think of any other way to describe them. They writhed over and around one another, making it hard to get an idea of their basic shape. Sora yelled when one claw-tipped hand grasped the edge of the tub. "Stop it!" he screamed, whirling on the mirror and gripping it with both hands. "Whatever you're doing, stop it!"

The blond's bland expression didn't waver. _"I'm not the one doing it, Keybearer."_

Movement from the tub drew Sora's attention before he could latch onto the strange term, and he cringed away with a thin cry of disgust as one of the creatures pulled its head over the edge of the tub. It fixed its glowing eyes on Sora, and he felt his heart begin to thunder in his chest. As if in response, the shadows began to flow over the side of the tub.

"Stop it," Sora moaned, turning his back on the mirror to kick out at the pulsating shadows.

_"They can't touch you yet."_ The boy's voice hadn't finished echoing inside Sora's mind when he felt two impossibly strong arms snake their way around his chest, cinching around his sternum. Sora threw a wild glance over his shoulder and felt his mind give another unpleasant lurch. The blond was leaning out of the mirror from the waist up. The smile that stretched beneath his empty eyes was horrible to look at. _"But I can."_

"No!" Sora struggled and kicked, but he was borne steadily up and back. A flailing hand knocked the necklace from its perch, and he heard a few of the thin shells shatter as they hit the floor. The edge of the sink pressed against the small of his back. "No! Let go!"

Then, impossibly, he was moving through the glass, the surface of which rippled and distorted around his passage. The back of one of Sora's thrashing heels caught painfully on the edge of the sink, and then he was falling backwards, down, down…

The arms around his chest tightened. _"Welcome to Twilight, Keybearer."_

Sora screamed.


	3. eerhT

(A/N): I. Hate. This. Chapter. With the blinding fury of a thousand suns or something equally cliche. Too many characters I've had little to no experience writing. I hope I didn't accidentally mangle anybody's favorite. To those waiting for an update on _BB_, it's coming, I swear. Wrestling with this chapter took far longer than anticipated. Reviews (and any comments of the helpful kind on characterization) welcomed as always.

**Edit**: I fixed some of the things that were bugging me and tried to address the issues some of you so kindly brought to my attention. I'll still be happy when this chapter is a distant memory.

Disclaimer: Nooooo.

eerhT

He couldn't breathe. Sora opened his mouth wide, desperately trying to suck some air into his lungs, but he only succeeded in producing an alarmingly feeble whistling sound.

"_-old him, don't let him…"_

"_-en, what the hell?"_

"_Close…-ortal, someone…the machine __**off**__."_

Dark shadows loomed over him, pulling at him, trying to still the thrashing of his limbs, but their figures were only ill-defined blurs.

"…_don't __**know**__…-ever tried…someone with a __**heart**__ befo- "_

"_-darkness sake someone…his legs…"_

He was pushed down onto a solid surface, the back of his head striking it with a horrible hollow sound. It felt like his chest was tearing itself apart. Sora tried to scream, but the air only whistled thinly through his vocal chords. The edges of his vision were going crimson.

"_**Do**__ something!"_

A gloved hand seized his chin, digging cruelly into his jaw as something cold and almost disgustingly sweet was poured down his throat. Sora coughed and spluttered, but a thumb pressed insistently into the rapidly bruising flesh of his jaw and he managed to swallow. The room immediately began to swim about him. Suddenly a face formed over him, leaning down out of the swirling chaos, and Sora found his own eyes staring down at him. His mouth flapped weakly, but before his thoughts could finish firming into words the world dissolved to black.

* * *

Vexen snatched the phial out of Axel's hand, lips pulled back in a nervous sneer. "What are you doing? Do you even know what was in here? You could've poisoned him!"

Axel crossed his arms over his chest, expression slightly contemptuous as Vexen placed the empty tube back among the overflowing pile of equipment the redhead had pulled it from. The low whine of the portal generator, still in the final stages of shutting down, reverberated against the unadorned walls. "Please. He's only sleeping," Axel scoffed, lifting one of the boy's arms and dropping it back against the examining table. "And it's not like you were coming up with any great ideas."

Vexen's expression darkened as he turned to tower over the redhead. "You dare – "

"Vexen."

The scientist paused and he and Axel both glanced over at Roxas, still leaning over the Keybearer. The young knight raised his head and fixed the scientist with startlingly blue eyes. "What happened?" he asked, an unusual edge in his voice. "What went wrong?"

Vexen's lip curled as he swept past Axel and came to stand over the other side of Sora's sleeping form. "We didn't know what would happen," he reminded the younger blond testily. "We've never attempted to bring a being with a heart into Twilight before." He leaned over the brown-haired boy and lifted an eyelid, icy green eyes narrowed in concentration. "It was probably the shock."

"You pulled him through too quickly, Rox," Axel drawled.

Roxas frowned at the black-clad knight. "I didn't have a choice. Maleficent's shadows were faster than I expected."

Vexen's lips thinned. "They reacted too strongly to the proximity of his heart," he muttered, lifting Sora's other eyelid. He straightened suddenly, eyes narrowed. "His heart. Of course. He came through too quickly…" Mumbling to himself, he moved over to a low table covered with scattered potions, test tubes and other scientific apparatus that Roxas suspected probably made sense only to him.

Axel and Roxas glanced at each other as Vexen bent over a tube of clear liquid bubbling over an open flame. "Uh, Vexen?" Axel ventured, arching an eyebrow when the other man glanced over his shoulder, expression dark. "Are you just gonna leave him there?" he inquired, jutting a thumb at where Sora lay comatose on the examining table.

Vexen's frown deepened. "No, of course not," he snapped. "I'll place him in a pod in a moment."

"We need him, Vexen," Roxas said.

"I know that," Vexen replied, gaze cold.

Axel glanced at Roxas again, but the boy only shrugged before offering Vexen a curt bow. "We'll leave you to your work, then." Vexen grunted and turned back to whatever it was he was doing, and Roxas and Axel shared one final glance before turning to leave the Fourth Knight's lab, their long dark coats whispering around their ankles.

"That guy's got one too many screws loose," Axel grumbled as the door sighed closed behind him. Roxas only gave him a look before striding down the starkly white hall. To his annoyance, the redhead turned and fell into step beside him.

"I thought you had to receive a briefing from your Assassins," Roxas said with a scowl.

"Well, that was before _someone_ came and hauled me out of my chambers to make sure Vexen's little experiment didn't blow up in his face." Axel carded a hand through his hair, green eyes gleaming. "You've gotta admit, for a champion of the Light he sure doesn't look like much," he said, glancing at his companion.

"Neither do you, beanpole." They both turned as Xigbar stepped out of the darkness beside them. The gray-haired knight's scar rippled as he grinned at Axel's expression before glancing at Roxas. "Hey, kid."

"I thought you were supposed to be on the wall with Xaldin," Roxas said.

"Ch." Xigbar waved a hand impatiently and turned his gaze toward the ceiling. "Between his lances and his Dragoons, he's not gonna die if I step away for a minute, is he? Besides, if anything was creeping up on the castle, he'd know it before anyone else. He'd like, feel it in the wind or something."

"Brilliant strategy," Axel said dryly.

"You never did learn to mind what comes out of that mouth of yours," Xigbar scoffed.

Roxas tried to subtly bury his elbow in Axel's side. "So why did you come off the wall?" he asked, ignoring the mock-hurt look the redhead flashed at him.

Xigbar turned his single eye back to the blond. "Supplies."

"You could've sent a Dusk for that," Roxas pointed out with a frown.

Another grin stretched across Xigbar's face. "But that defeats the whole point of my getting away for a while, doesn't it?" He barked a short laugh and clapped a hand against the younger knight's shoulder. "Lighten up, kid. The castle's not gonna fall because I stepped away for a piss."

"I thought you needed supplies," Roxas said sourly, shaking the other man's hand away.

Xigbar shrugged and turned to leave. "Must have been both," he grinned.

"Doesn't it feel good to know our safety lies in such competent hands?" Axel muttered in Roxas's ear as Xigbar strode away from them. Roxas grumbled under his breath and shoved the redhead away from him.

"You're going to be turned into a Dusk one of these days for insubordination," he growled, straightening his jacket. Gloved fingers brushed over the sigil of their Order – white stitching against black cloth set high on the left side of his chest.

"Speaking of our benevolent Superior, someone has to report this mess to Xemnas," Axel said, lips stretching in a crooked smile. Roxas's mouth tightened into a grim line. "And since you so graciously reminded me of prior obligations just a few minutes ago…" With a mocking bow, the older knight opened a door to the darkness with a flick of his wrist and stepped through. "Good luck," he called back as the portal closed behind him.

Roxas glared at the place he had been, rubbing at his temple. After exactly two seconds dedicated to considering how displeased the Superior would be to hear that their venture hadn't met with the greatest of success, he opted to take the long way to Xemnas's chambers, trudging down dimly lit corridors and up stairways that twisted and turned back on themselves. No hangings softened the walls; no paintings brightened the unrelieved whiteness of the castle's halls.

When at last he stood before the massive doors leading to Xemnas's chambers, Roxas took a deep breath and lifted a hand to knock. Before his knuckles could connect with the wood, one of Xemnas's Sorcerers pulled the door open. It regarded Roxas silently for a moment, and the blond shifted beneath its eyeless gaze. Finally, it stepped back and gestured with one arm, hands hidden deep within its voluminous sleeves. _The master has been waiting for you._

Roxas's stomach sank, but he nodded curtly at the Sorcerer and followed when it turned away from the door. The rooms it led him through were sparse in their furnishings, all white or pale gray; Roxas wondered, not for the first time, what the founders of the Order had had against the majority of the color spectrum. The Sorcerer paused in front of the doors leading to the First Knight's private study, pushing the door open and bowing deeply. _The Key of Destiny is here._

Roxas caught a glimpse of gold steel over the bowing servant's shoulder and suddenly wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

* * *

Axel found him two hours later in one of the common rooms, bent over a large pile of paperwork with Dusks scurrying to and fro around him. "Hey," the redhead said, arching an eyebrow at the mess. "What's all this?"

"What's it look like?" Roxas asked caustically, scribbling a figure at the bottom of a page and flipping to the next.

"It _looks_ like you're balancing last month's food budget," Axel replied, leaning over the younger knight and squinting at the papers clutched in his hands. "Isn't bookkeeping usually Zexion's task?" Roxas grunted and flapped a hand distractedly as another Dusk approached, arms laden with thick sheaves of paper. "Well…that's not so bad, right?"

"I got an extra watch on the wall."

Axel winced. "Ouch. Your meeting didn't go so great, huh?"

"No, Axel, it didn't."

Axel sighed and sank down on an adjacent bench, drawing one leg up and leaning his head back against the wall. "Heard anything from Vexen?"

Roxas finally met the redhead's eyes for a moment before returning his attention to his work. "He thinks the balance of the Keybearer's heart was temporarily fractured when we dragged him out of the Light. He's keeping him under observation for now."

"Mm. But will he wake _up_?" Axel asked.

Roxas kept his eyes trained on his work. "He's not sure."

Axel let his breath out in a light hiss. "Shit."

There was a short silence, filled only with the scratching of Roxas's pen against paper. "What about you?" he asked at length, peering at Axel out of the corner of his eye. "What did your Assassins have to say?"

Axel's smile was bitter. "Hell, Roxas, what do you think they said? Nothing's changed. The shadows still hold half the city. Lexaeus is doing what he can, but more and more of them slip through all the time."

"But the Queen's seal," Roxas protested.

"It's still holding."

Something in Roxas's expression eased. "Good."

"For now," Axel added sourly. "It's a great mess we're in here, kid."

"No one expected him to be foolish enough to bring down the boundary between Twilight and the Dark," Roxas muttered, stabbing at the paper with his pen.

"Hm." Axel regarded the ceiling, eyes glassy and distant. "Not foolish," he said at last, expression uncharacteristically blank. "Not stupid, either. A little crazy, but the bastard knew what he was doing. You've gotta give him that." He rolled his head to stare at Roxas, a smirk cracking the blankness at Roxas's glare. "What?"

"Sometimes I wonder whose side you're on," Roxas grumbled.

Axel rolled his eyes and placed a hand to his chest. "Oh, that hurts, Roxas. You really have to ask after all this time?" He set his leg back on the floor and leaned forward, grabbing the boy by the shoulder as he brought his mouth close to his ear. "I'm on the side that's winning," he whispered with a feral grin.

Roxas shrugged him off, scowling. "The Superior wouldn't bother turning you into a Dusk," he muttered darkly, swatting the redhead's hand away from him. "He'd just return you to Darkness."

"You always say the sweetest things, you know that?" Axel asked dryly, leaning back in his seat again. Roxas ignored him, and Axel fell silent, one leg jiggling up and down as he watched the blond work. Suddenly he straightened, snapping his fingers. "I almost forgot," he muttered, drawing his coat open and rooting through one of the interior pockets. Roxas blinked when he pulled out an apple and held it out to him. "Here."

"What is _that_?" Roxas asked, eyeing the piece of fruit doubtfully.

"Poison," Axel snorted, tossing the apple at him. "What does it look like?" Roxas fumbled the sphere, glaring at the redhead as the papers he'd been holding slipped out of his grasp and tumbled to the floor. Axel only arched an eyebrow at him, expression faintly mocking. "You missed lunch while you were being chewed out by Xemnas," he said glibly. "And I wouldn't wish the Dusks' cooking on a shadow."

Eyebrows knitting together, Roxas glanced down at the apple cupped in his hands, mind racing. The Knights of the Order rarely went out of their way to help one another outside the field of battle. The fact that Axel so often surprised him with moments like this was still a matter of some discomfort for him. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what the redhead would eventually expect in return.

His stomach rumbled at him. Hating the light gleaming in the older knight's eyes, Roxas reluctantly took a bite.

"There, now," Axel sighed, grinning as he sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. "And you're still alive. Good for you, Roxas."

"Shut up," Roxas muttered, taking another bite.

"Your thanks is overwhelming," Axel said dryly. Roxas ignored him, bending over and trying to retrieve the dropped papers with one hand. Axel nudged one of the farther flung pages with his boot, ignoring the glare it earned him. Wedging the piece of fruit between his teeth, Roxas gathered the scattered pages back together, shuffling them into a messy pile and placing them back in his lap. Taking the apple in one hand and his pen in the other, the blond bent his attention back to his figures.

Axel sat silently for a while, and Roxas noted how tired the redhead looked, how deep the shadows under his eyes had grown. Finally he glanced toward the ceiling and stood. "I'm due on the wall soon. See you around."

"Axel." The redhead turned back at the sound of Roxas's voice. Roxas regarded him speculatively before tossing the apple's core at him. "Thanks."

Axel plucked it out of the air with nimble fingers, then tossed it over his shoulder into the darkness with a ghost of a smirk. "No problem, Roxas."

* * *

Roxas pulled his coat a little tighter around him, shivering in the cool night air. His Samurai were like ghosts in the darkness, stark white silhouettes outlined against the perpetually twilit sky. Roxas scowled and pulled his collar up around his face, burying his nose in the dark fabric. It was the duty of each knight and his retainers to stand watch on the castle's outer wall for two hours of each day – more, now that their forces were spread between the castle and the city – but it was dark, dreary, boring work, and…and cold. Roxas peeled his gloves off and tucked them into his belt, blowing his breath into his cupped hands in an effort to warm them.

Footsteps on the wall behind him drew his attention, and he called his Keyblades to his hands. "Who goes?" he called, feeling slightly foolish as he peered into the dark.

"Well met, sir," Luxord's voice responded, and Roxas dismissed his weapons as the Tenth Knight's white-blond head of hair materialized from around the corner. "At least you would be if it weren't so bloody cold," he amended, disregarding the remainder of the traditional answer. "Why Xemnas insists we act out this charade every time we wish to enter the castle I'll never know."

Roxas shrugged the complaint aside; the Superior didn't require understanding from his subordinates, only obedience. "What's happening in the city?" he asked.

"The shadows are agitated," Luxord responded. "Lexaeus is concerned over their sudden activity – he sent me to ask for reinforcements." His teeth flashed beneath his neatly trimmed goatee as he gave a rueful smile. "All of which I should be reporting to the Superior instead of you," he said dryly.

"Wait," Roxas said, eyes narrowing. "Agitated how?"

Luxord shrugged. "Their attacks come more often and with greater coordination – they've gained ground just in these past few hours. Strange, don't you think, when there is nothing here they want?" he asked, tapping a gloved finger against his chest. He leaned down slightly, pale eyes flashing in the half-light. "And what is it you know that makes you ask?"

Roxas refused to take a step back, scowling up at the taller man. "The Keybearer has entered Twilight."

Luxord's eyebrows rose as he straightened. "Really?" He studied Roxas narrowly as he digested the information. "And the Queen?"

"Unchanged," Roxas admitted, shoulders slumping slightly.

"Hmm." Luxord tapped a finger against his chin before his face split into a grin. "This will make the game more interesting."

"It's not a game," Roxas snapped.

"You are young, sir knight," Luxord said wryly. "Everything is a game. We are merely the playing pieces." Luxord gave him a short bow and turned away, the tails of his black coat fanning outward with the movement. Roxas waited until the older knight had let the darkness swallow him before returning his attention to the landscape spread beyond the wall.

The lights of Dark City, perpetually burning, fanned out toward the horizon before cutting off abruptly. Beyond the sudden demarcation was a rising wall of darkness, climbing toward the sky and obliterating the weak light of the stars. It could have been his imagination, but after Luxord's news it seemed to have crept closer. Another cold breath of wind gusted past him, and Roxas pulled his hood up, eyes narrowed. This was another reason he hated standing watch on the wall – with nothing to distract his mind from the steadily growing darkness on the horizon, it was too easy to believe it was sentient…breathing.

Suddenly restless, Roxas moved down the wall, his boots drawing hollow reverberations from the white stone. His Samurai parted for him, flowing back into place once he'd passed.

Somewhere, out there beyond the wall of darkness and the witch's army, the traitor resided in his stolen castle.

Roxas called Oblivion to his hand, relishing in the feel, the weight of it. He hefted it in one hand, resting it over his shoulder as he stalked up and down the wall, the wind tugging and teasing at his dark hood. If he ever laid eyes on the man again, he'd run him through. He'd pictured it in his head a thousand times – the way the teeth of his blade would bite into the man's skin, parting it, breaking ribs as he forced deeper, blood spurting as he drove toward what passed for the bastard's heart…

Luxord's sudden reappearance startled him out of his macabre reverie; he was halfway through his swing when he recognized the knight. Hurriedly readjusting his weapon's trajectory, he pulled it high, the Keyblade's teeth breezing a bare inch from the Tenth Knight's nose before smashing into the wall.

Luxord didn't blink. "I pity the shadows on the other end of your blades," he said, wrinkling his nose at the dust rising from the damaged wall.

Roxas wrenched his blade free with a scowl. "What are you doing out here again?"

Luxord moved past him, hands clasped behind his back. "You failed to mention the Keybearer lies comatose in the Fourth Knight's laboratory," he said mildly. "I find it hard to believe even one so strong in the Light can be savior of anything in his sleep."

Roxas dismissed his weapon, hands hanging slack and empty at his sides. "Vexen never promised success." Luxord made a small sound of acknowledgement and turned to look out over the wall. "How does that affect your _game_?" Roxas asked acerbically.

"Not at all." Luxord inclined his head when Roxas glanced at him in surprise. "The Darkness will come whether the Light stands with us or not. There have always only been two outcomes – victory, or defeat." The edge of the older man's lips twitched just slightly at Roxas's expression. "And now, sir knight, I bid you farewell." And with a bow and a flick of a wrist he was gone, swallowed back into the darkness.

* * *

_He was standing on the beach, the sand warm between his toes and his surfboard a solid weight beneath his arm. Riku and Kairi were already paddling out into the water, pausing occasionally to wave and call back to him, but right now he just wanted to stand here and feel the sun beating down on him, the smooth slip of the shells Kairi had given him against his chest as he breathed…_

_And suddenly Riku and Kairi were gone, their boards bobbing aimlessly on the waves. Sora blinked, half-expecting them to be there when his eyelids rose again. "Guys?" he called, gaze scouring the water. Had they slipped off of their surfboards when he wasn't looking? "C'mon guys, this isn't funny!" he shouted. The gulls screamed back at him; it was the only response he received._

_He glanced up and down the beach, but he was alone. He looked back out at the water, the first vestiges of panic beginning to twine around his chest. What if they'd slipped off their boards as a joke, but got caught in a riptide or an undertow or something and couldn't get back to the surface?_

"_Riku! Kairi!" The surf splashed and surged around him, tugging at his ankles as each wave swept back towards the ocean. "Answer me!" The sand sucked at his feet; a wave knocked his legs out from underneath him and he went down. He lost his grip on the surfboard, and it swirled away from him in the suddenly murky water. Sora struggled toward the surface, but the toss and whirl of the waves conspired to keep him pressed to the sandy floor. He gasped, the silver-spangled shimmer of his breath blinding him for a moment before being dashed to pieces on the shore – and he was drowning in a foot of water._

_Sora inhaled in a panicky moment of flawed instinct, and suddenly he was drowning not in water but in darkness, the pressure in his chest unbearable. It flowed past his lips, over his tongue and down his throat, the world swirling sickly around him as his lungs constricted and his breath died in his throat._

"_Riku… Kairi…"_

_And suddenly it was air being drawn into his tender lungs. Sora coughed and choked, retched on the dark sand that had formed from nothing beneath him. Wiping the moisture from his streaming eyes, he stood on shaky legs and surveyed the broken rocks and black water breaking against the dark beach. "Guys?" His voice was a harsh croak, and his throat flared with pain. He wobbled, teetering unsteadily to the side. "Please…"_

_Nothing answered him._

_Sora took a few shaky steps to his right, then paused, peering down the shore through swollen lids. The beach stretched unbroken toward the horizon. He turned and stared in the other direction – more of the same. His legs gave out on him and he sprawled to the sand in a heap, fingers digging into the strangely colored grains. "Wake up," he muttered to himself, eyes slipping closed._

* * *

Vexen looked up from his work as the machine monitoring the Keybearer's vital signs began to wail a warning, red light strobing rhythmically across the boy's face behind the translucent walls of his resuscitation chamber. His eyes twitched erratically beneath the lids, and for an agonizing moment Vexen thought he might be seizing.

The air was suddenly alive with the sub audible whispers of the Dusks, waiting to be summoned from the shadows and nothingness of the castle, but Vexen quieted them with a thought and hurried to the large screens splashing pulsing warnings across the open room. Seating himself before the complicated tangle of wires and machines, Vexen punched in the override codes, frowning in concentration as error messages bloomed across the screen, pulsing in time to the frenzied sirens.

With a muttered oath, Vexen summoned a Dusk to him as he tried another string of numbers, to no avail. "Fetch Roxas," he snapped at the servant, watching a fresh round of error messages obscure the screens. The Dusk slipped away without a sound.

* * *

_Light stabbed through his closed lids. Wincing, Sora shielded his face with one hand as he peered out over the water. Impossibly, a crack of light was shining through the very fabric of the sky; as Sora watched it widened, until it seemed the entire horizon was blazing._

_He pushed himself up, legs slightly steadier than they had been, wiping the sand absently from his hair and skin. He'd taken three steps forward before he realized what he was doing and forced himself to stop, bare toes curling in the alien surf. His hair stirred slightly in a sudden gentle breeze from nowhere, and he took another two fumbling steps._

_He made himself stop again, now ankle-deep in water. Deliberately, he turned his head away, staring first one way and then the other down the beach. Everything remained unchanged. Everything except the light on the horizon, now so bright it hurt to look directly into it._

_"Okay," he breathed. He took another step._

_The waves beat against the shore, smoothing away the indentations in the sand._

* * *

Roxas stared up at the brown-haired boy, sleeping suspended in the egg-shaped chamber. Vexen stood off to his right, one hand hovering over the button that would open the pod. "You think his heart is stable now?" he asked the scientist, running gloved fingers through his hair distractedly.

"I think this is the only way to know," the older knight corrected, unable to restrain the current of anticipation running through him at the possibility of seeing the outcome of his experiment. "It's been a half hour – all of his vital signs have improved at an astonishing rate. I believe he's past the point of crisis."

Roxas stared at the Keybearer for a long moment before he nodded. "He's my reflection. I'll take responsibility."

Vexen nodded and lowered his hand. For a moment, nothing happened, then the front of the chamber cracked open with a pneumatic hiss. Mist spilled from the pod's interior, flowing heavily to the ground and creeping outward with curling fingers. Roxas's coat stirred around him with the disturbance, and his bangs were blown back off of his forehead. Neither he nor Vexen moved.

The pod's door opened farther, lowering toward the ground. The mist began to evaporate, and the Keybearer descended slowly toward the chamber floor. Vexen exhaled loudly when the boy's bare feet touched down.

Roxas glanced at the older knight, who nodded impatiently. Taking a deep breath, Roxas stared at his reflection. "Sora."

Slowly, as if awakening from a deep sleep, the Keybearer opened his eyes.


	4. ruoF

(A/N): I liiive! Oh wow, it's been a while, yes? I'm really sorry about that, guys. If FFnet didn't discourage personal posts, I would've put up a notice that I would be gone for a while - I had several personal issues hit the fan around the new year, and it took me a while to work through them. But I'm back, and it feels _wonderful_ to be writing again. Hopefully this update will be followed by the next _BB_ chapter within the next two weeks. ALSO: Not only has this fandom been immensely helpful to me as a writer, I have also met countless people I consider friends. And I'll soon consider one a roomie. **kurosora1984** and I have plans to move in together sometime at the end of the summer, and I'm not sure the universe will support the epicness, but we're damn well gonna try. So if the universe spontaneously implodes, that was our bad. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, as always.

Disclaimer: I tried to sue for the rights to the KH franchise, but they laughed me out of the courtroom.

ruoF

Sora drifted in a state somewhere between waking and true sleep, little pinpricks of light from his conscious mind occasionally managing to pierce the gloom of his subconscious depths. He was…floating, suspended in cool air that carried the faintest whiff of medicine. …But that couldn't be right. People couldn't just _float_. The sensation sank into oblivion before his mind could finish analyzing it, and was forgotten. Somewhere, on the very farthest edge of perception, he was aware that every organ housed between his ribs felt battered and bruised, one heartbeat away from flying apart into so many splintered shards, but the knowledge remained peripheral, unable to stir him into higher consciousness. He had the vague impression he was supposed to be horribly afraid, but couldn't remember why.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been caught in this suspended state, couldn't remember how it had come to pass, but the effort needed to trace those questions back to their roots was more than he was willing to expend. His mind slid away from the questions; he allowed it to, continuing to drift in the emptiness behind his eyelids.

From somewhere far away, a barely audible hissing filled his surroundings, and the air around him began to change, the vaguely medicinal scent filtered out, supplanted with air that was curiously flat, without scent or taste – completely lacking stimuli of any kind.

He found it unsettling.

His feet, which he hadn't realized were bare until that moment, touched down on a smooth, cool surface, and he wondered idly if that meant he truly had been floating.

"_Sora."_

Sora's eyes flickered rapidly, once, beneath his lids, as his heart began pumping adrenaline throughout his body. He didn't want to acknowledge that voice – it was tied to things he didn't want to remember, he was sure of that – but something deep down where he hadn't even known he still held a sense of self forced his eyes slowly open.

Brilliant blue eyes, identical to Sora's except for their icy cast, stared back at him from a face that brought everything crashing back into him with the force of a physical blow; gasping, Sora reeled back a step, back colliding with a slightly concave surface he immediately attempted to meld with. "_You_." Those eyes blinked – at least he actually _had_ eyes this time, Sora reflected with a slight edge of hysteria – but the boy made no other acknowledgment of Sora's statement.

"Well, it seems he remembers you." Sora jerked his head to the right, his pulse hammering in his throat. His gaze swept past unadorned white walls and a highly polished floor before coming to rest on the black-coated figure standing among a snarl of wires and flickering computer screens. Cold, appraising green eyes held his own for a moment before flicking toward a screen with bright white lines tracing their way across it. "Vital signs are holding steady."

Sora tore his gaze back to the mirror-boy's face, mind whirling. "I – wha –" He paused, his mouth snapping closed as he swallowed convulsively. The room reeled, and for a moment he thought he could taste darkness on his tongue. "Where's the beach?" he whispered.

Something flickered in the blond boy's eyes. "You saw the beach?" Sora didn't answer – mind soft with shock, he slid down the surface of the wall at his back and curled in on himself, wrapping his arms around his knees and hiding his face.

"What did you do to him, XIII?" Sora heard the tall man with the cold green eyes step away from the tangle of machinery and cross the short distance to the mirror-boy's side.

"Nothing." The mirror-boy's tone was entirely neutral, yet still managed to project an air of disdain. The man scoffed, but offered no other comment.

"It's not there," Sora muttered as he thumped his head gently against his knees. "It's not there, it's not, it's _not_…" He glanced up to take a peek at his surroundings and found the blond man standing over him, reaching one gloved hand toward Sora's face. Sora recoiled with a small cry, knocking his head against the wall of the structure he'd woken in.

The man frowned. "Stop that," he said crossly, and darkness flashed behind his eyes. Sora froze, eyes wide and unblinking. "Good." Withdrawing what looked like a penlight from an interior pocket, he took hold of Sora's jaw. "Don't move." He shone a thin beam of light into each of Sora's eyes, flicking it abruptly away and then bringing it back, studying the rate at which his pupils dilated and contracted. A small humming sound leaked through the man's thin lips before he set the light aside and placed his free hand on Sora's jaw, forcing his head back, pulling it forward, pivoting it in all directions. The mirror-boy watched impassively.

Sora's throat worked, but the words of protest died before they could reach his lips. His body was humming with unspent adrenaline, heart beating a staccato rhythm against his bruised ribcage and every instinct he possessed screaming at him _to get out of there_, to just _run_, but… Despite the growing panic drumming just beneath his skin and the instinctual aversion he felt whenever those gloved hands brushed his exposed flesh, they weren't _hurting_ him – instead, they seemed to be subjecting him to a bizarre, slightly disturbing checkup, akin to one he'd received when Riku had accidentally smashed his Struggle bat across the back of Sora's head when they were young. Uncertain, unhappy, he endured the man's poking and prodding, fighting back the impulse to bite down when leather-clad fingers were thrust into his mouth, staring over the man's shoulder at the blond boy with the icy eyes.

"Well?" the other boy asked as the man finally took a step back.

"He seems stable – the danger to his heart should be behind us."

The set of the mirror-boy's shoulders relaxed slightly before he gave a curt nod and lifted a gloved hand. Sora pressed himself against the wall at his back as the air behind the other boy seemed to distort and bend, bulging outward in a roughly spherical shape. There was a rushing sound, and Sora's eardrums popped as a pale humanoid shape stepped out of nothing and stood behind the boy. Its clothing consisted mostly of shades of white and grey, and a mask with three parallel slits obscured its face. Two swords were slung low across its back.

Sora scrambled backward until he was half-standing again, fingers curled into stiff claws; the mirror-boy didn't even glance at the strange apparition. "Let the Superior know the Keybearer's awake," he instructed. The specter bowed its head, then turned away and was gone. "Sora." Sora started and tore his gaze from the empty air where the creature had been standing only seconds before. The black-coated boy had crossed his arms over his chest and was regarding him with poorly concealed impatience. "You can climb down from there now."

It took a moment for Sora to process the statement, but as his neurons finally began firing at full speed once more he didn't move to obey; instead, his lips twisted into a fierce scowl and he leveled an accusatory finger at the blond. "You. This is all _your_ fault." The other boy blinked at him, but Sora barreled on. "The bathroom, and the mirror, and those _things_, and – and you _stole_ my _eyes_," he finished, voice edging towards shrill as a black splinter of hysteria wedged itself in his chest.

A frown wrinkled the mirror-boy's forehead as Sora continued to glare at him. "I told you the shadows weren't my doing," he said, tone clipped.

"You dragged me through a _mirror_!" Sora shouted, throwing his arms up over his head. "You just – _agh_!"

The other boy glanced sideways at his companion. "I thought you said he was stable, Vexen."

Vexen shrugged, narrowing his eyes as he regarded the computer screens flanking the strange apparatus Sora was still standing in. "If he saw the beach, he almost wound up in true Darkness – it may have fractured his memories as well as his heart. Perhaps a few more tests…"

"The Keybearer's not one of your toys, Vexen."

Sora jumped at the sound of the new voice, outburst forgotten as a dark hole tore itself into existence next to the mirror-boy. Looking into it made Sora feel queasy – it brought to mind the nothing that existed between stars and made his heart jump and hammer against his ribs. The darkness coalesced into a man with a mane of wild red spikes and vivid green eyes. He was dressed in the same manner as the other two – a long black overcoat with a strange white symbol stitched into the material above his heart – and his cheeks were marred by dark marks that resembled tattoos.

The hint of irritation in the blond boy's expression grew markedly more noticeable. "What do you want, Axel?"

"What, no bright, cheerful hello? I'm hurt, Rox." The redhead grinned at the boy's expression before he shrugged. "The Superior sent me."

"He could've sent a servant," the mirror-boy pointed out with a scowl.

"All the Sorcerers have been dispatched to the city," Axel said, waving a hand vaguely in the air. "All of Twilight felt him wake up – the shadows are massing for an attack."

This…was not happening Sora decided as the strength went out of his legs and he sank back to the floor of his strange pod. It just _wasn't_. This was just another one of his strange dreams, and when he finally woke up he was going to come clean about them to Riku and Kairi, maybe even his _mom_, and if they decided maybe he needed to talk to someone he wouldn't even argue because this was so very definitely _not normal_… When this was all over, he thought with a slight edge of hysteria, offering it up as a sort of incoherent prayer, he was never going near another mirror again. _Ever_.

Sora's head snapped up and he glanced around the room's bare walls. Maybe… His mind seized on the idea with an almost manic intensity. _Maybe, maybe, maybe…_ Trying not to draw attention to himself, he inched toward the edge of the pod.

"…so you're supposed to stick him somewhere safe and report to Lexaeus," Axel finished, eyes darting to the side as motion in his peripheral vision caught his attention. The other two turned their heads to follow his gaze, and Sora froze at the three sets of eyes on him, one leg hanging over the edge of the egg-shaped chamber and the other still folded against his chest. The redhead smiled, and Sora's stomach sank. "Hey, kid," Axel said amiably. "Going somewhere?"

Sora broke. Surging forward, he launched himself off the edge of the chamber and to the floor, bare feet scrambling for purchase on the polished surface. He almost fell, barely regained his balance by wind milling his arms wildly, and ran for the door set in the far wall.

The boy from the mirror set himself solidly in Sora's path, face once again an emotionless blank. Body humming with adrenaline, Sora flung himself straight at the blond, wrapping his arms around the black-clad waist and slamming the both of them to the ground with a shout. The other boy didn't make a sound, only smashed the heel of his hand up under Sora's chin, snapping his head back with an audible crack. Dazed, Sora loosened his grip on the blond, and a pair of strong hands seized him from behind, pulling him off of the other boy.

"Now, now," Axel chided, fingers digging painfully into Sora's arms. "Is that any way to start the introductions?"

"Axel."

Both Axel and Sora looked over at the boy, already back on his feet. Sora felt a dull sort of resentment that he didn't appear winded at all; his own jaw was throbbing. The other boy sighed and pulled his bangs out of his face with a frown. "Let him go."

Axel's grip tightened for an instant before he released Sora so suddenly the boy stumbled forward a step. Bringing one of his abused arms to his chest, Sora tried to rub the circulation back into it as he regarded the trio warily. Vexen was studying him like a specimen under a microscope, rubbing his chin and muttering something about things not going according to plan. Axel took a step back to stand next to the boy from the mirror, crossing his arms over his chest. "He's your reflection," he said, shrugging.

Sora fidgeted uncomfortably. His eyes felt dry and grainy in their sockets and his mind felt as if it had been scoured with steel wool, and he wanted to be _anywhere_ but where he was, trapped in this bizarre hallucination. He drew a deep, shaky breath, straightening slightly and pushing his hair out of his face. "I –"

There was a distant explosion, and Axel's lips twisted in a grimace. "Here they come," he muttered. His expression morphed to one of puzzlement as Sora clapped his hands over his ears and fell to his knees with a small cry of pain.

"What's wrong?" the mirror-boy asked, but Sora only huddled a little more deeply into himself, until his nose was hovering scant inches from the floor. Hundreds of sibilant whispers were ricocheting around his already aching skull, their echoes growing steadily in volume, scraping harshly against the bone. "Vexen…"

Vexen shrugged, expression skewed in frustration. "I have no idea. Perhaps the Darkness –"

"But he's inside the seal!"

"Mm, but with the strain his heart went through – I should've foreseen something like this," Vexen muttered.

"That would've helped," Axel said dryly.

"We don't have time for this," the blond boy barked. Tearing a gloved hand through his hair, he glared at Sora's stooped form. "I'll take him to the throne room. The Queen's seal is strongest there."

"I'd hurry," Axel said. He flicked one hand at the air behind him, and another dark hole tore itself into existence. "They're coming fast." Smirking at the poisonous look the mirror-boy shot him, the redhead melted into the oily blackness.

"He's right – you should hurry," Vexen said as he turned away from them.

"What about you?"

Vexen seated himself among the multitude of computer monitors and began sifting through different screens. "My Inquisitors are already in the city," he said. "Someone has to secure the latest data." He sent a pointed glance at Sora's huddled form. "I'll join Zexion on the wall shortly."

The younger blond opened his mouth, apparently thought better of it, and shook his head. "Fine." He glanced back down to where Sora was huddling against the floor. "Sora." Sora ignored him, trying to tuck his shoulders up around his ears in a futile attempt to quiet the din in his head. "_Sora_." Grudgingly, Sora raised his face far enough off the floor to peer up at the other boy. "Do you still have the keychain?" When Sora only gazed up at him blankly, the other boy sighed. "The _keychain_," he repeated, as if speaking to a particularly slow child. "We slipped it through the mirror weeks ago."

Something sparked in Sora's onslaught-numbed mind, and he slipped his hand into his pocket. The sudden silence in his head when his fingers first brushed the cool metal shocked him so badly he jerked his hand back with a small cry. As the cacophony came rushing back in, he plunged his hand back into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the small object with the desperation of a drowning man grasping a piece of driftwood. Panting shallowly, he drew the hand holding the keychain out of his pocket, clutching it to his chest.

"Good," the blond boy said. "Stand up."

Sora's body began moving before his mind had finished processing the order; as his brain caught up with the rest of him he froze halfway up from the floor, the muscles in his legs quivering unsteadily. "You," he said, voice catching roughly in his throat. He cleared it and tried again. "What –" His fingers curled a little tighter around the keychain in frustration before he shoved himself the rest of the way up, stumbling as he lunged forward and wrapped his hands around the loose folds of the other boy's dark clothing. "_What_ is going _on_? Where's Riku? Where's _Kairi_? What did you _do_ to me?"

"I'm sorry the transition was hard for you," the blond boy said. "But we were given an oath." He raised his hands and laid them over Sora's, prying the brown-haired boy's fingers from his jacket and thrusting them back. "And you didn't give us any other choice." He turned his back on Sora, striding toward the door.

Sora hesitated, gaze swiveling between Vexen and the mirror-boy's rapidly retreating back. "Go," Vexen said without looking up. "He's not known for his patience." Sora stared at him for another moment, mind reeling and throat crowded with questions, before he turned and hurried after the smaller blond.

He trailed the other boy through a succession of large rooms that resembled a cross between the science labs at Trinity High and a mad scientist's lair – notebooks and sheaves of unbound pages covered with strange letters and symbols were scattered among neatly racked test tubes and vials filled with viscous liquids of every conceivable color. Shelves rose haphazardly along the high walls, far above the height a person could easily reach, overflowing with specimen jars filled with objects Sora had never laid eyes on before and wasn't sure he wanted to know exactly what they were. The lighting was harsh, clinical, and Sora's skull soon began to throb anew.

The mirror-boy never glanced back to check that Sora was still following, only marched inexorably onward, emerging from the harshly lit rooms into a long hallway awash in shadows, casting the white walls into pale shades of grey. Sora hesitated at the threshold of the dimly lit corridor, glancing between the black-clad back rapidly disappearing down the long stretch of white and the empty passageway extending in the opposite direction. Chewing at his bottom lip, he shifted from one foot to the other, wondering what would happen if he just started running. Although he wouldn't call the attentions he'd received since waking into this madness in any way reassuring, no one had attempted to actually harm him; on the other hand, he had no idea where he was, and the walls stretching away from him on either side were completely bare – there wasn't a single reflective surface anywhere. His shoulders slumped slightly before he turned and, feet slipping against the floor, broke into a jog.

He slowed when he reached the other boy, regarding the blond warily from the corner of his eye as he shoved his hands into his pockets, one fist still wrapped around the keychain. "Where are we going?" he asked cautiously.

The other boy spared him a brief glance, and Sora tried to pretend the world didn't spin around him just a little at the sight of his own eyes staring out at him from a stranger's face. The blond turned his face forward again. "The Queen's throne room."

Sora's steps faltered. "The Queen?" The miniature teeth of the keychain prickled against his fingers. "The White Queen?"

The blond's eyes narrowed, but he gave no other indication he'd heard the question. Sora suppressed a sigh and lifted his free hand to massage his temple, trying to rub away the pressure gradually building there. The hallway twisted and turned, giving way to a rising stair, and the other boy's steps quickened when they passed beneath an elaborate archway and climbed the steps into the open air. The sky unfolded above them, the weak twinkle of the stars pinpricks of light against the bruised clouds.

Wincing, still rubbing at his temples, Sora glanced down. And froze.

The stairway rose on air, bounded by thin rails that were all that stood between Sora and a fathomless plunge into yawning darkness. The outer walls and walkways of the immense lower floors curved in and out of view below them, the thin fringe of crumbling soil still clinging to the base of the castle the only thing to suggest the structure had once rested upon earth rather than air.

A strangled gasp worked its way out of Sora's throat, and the mirror-boy threw an irritated glance over his shoulder as Sora froze, hands shooting out to either side and squeezing the railings until it felt like the muscles in his forearms would tear themselves right off the bone. "We have to keep moving," the other boy said. Sora shook his head, eyes wide. The keychain was still in his pocket and the voices had swept back into his head with a roar, circling restlessly around his skull, his temples pounding with every heartbeat. The other boy paused, frowning, and Sora's gaze slipped past him, to the crumbling city sprawled in the castle's shadow. Lights burned in every window, a delicate web of radiance spreading toward the horizon – until it was snuffed out by an encroaching wall of darkness. Looking into that absolute blackness made his throat go dry, filled with the metallic taste of fear, and he hurriedly turned his eyes away from it.

In the part of the city not yet swallowed by the darkness, gouts of flame erupted down a wide avenue, turning the street into a blazing inferno, the flickering tongues of flame momentarily reflected in each empty window before the earth heaved and buckled, roiling like something alive. As the buildings groaned and fell, Sora thought he caught a glimpse of humanoid shapes darting through the flames, slashing at one another with crude weapons or their bare hands.

"Sora!"

The mirror-boy interposed himself between Sora and his view of the city, reaching out and wrenching one of the brown-haired boy's hands away from the rails. "We're almost there," he said. "Move." Sora's breath shuddered past his lips, but he nodded and grabbed the keychain once more, the clamor in his head receding to a dull pounding as the blond boy turned away and hurried up the steps.

The stairway twisted back on itself, and Sora followed swiftly on the other boy's heels as they passed beneath another archway and back into the castle proper. As they wound their way further and further from the fighting, the pressure in Sora's head eased, until it was a barely-existent hum in the back of his mind.

Finally, the mirror-boy paused before a set of massive elaborately carved doors. "This is it," he said. He wrapped gloved fingers around the two large handles and shoved, and the doors groaned inward before him.

Sora followed him into a room so white it was almost blinding, dominated by a massive throne set against the far wall. The back of it stretched almost to the gabled ceiling, and the whole thing shone like mother-of-pearl. A pale girl rested crumpled against one of the armrests; she wore a flowing white dress that trailed to the ground, and a delicate silver circlet shone against her fair hair. The mirror-boy went down on one knee before her, inclining his head, but she didn't acknowledge him. She didn't even seem to see him. Sora shifted uncomfortably as the other boy straightened again, trying to figure out what it was in the line of her limbs that struck him as so wrong before it hit him – it looked as if someone had propped her up on the throne, like a life-sized doll, with no thought as to how her arms should lie naturally, leaving them to rest where they fell. Wide blue eyes stared sightlessly into Sora's, and he felt a shiver creep up his spine.

Sliding his gaze away from her empty eyes, his attention was taken by the wall behind the throne – it was plastered with drawings, a riot of color in the otherwise stark room, and Sora found his gaze inexorably drawn to them, his uneasiness forgotten. They were crude, the gaudy scribblings of a child, but they held a queer sort of fascination – though the pounding in his head intensified the longer he looked at them, he seemed unable to tear his gaze away, taking an unconscious step forward –

"I wouldn't look at those for too long," a voice said from behind him. "Her powers tend to have unpredictable effects on those with hearts."

It was as if someone had doused his mind with ice water – Sora gasped, a huge, sucking breath, and tore his eyes from the illustrations, spinning around to face the doors they'd come through. A man was standing just inside the threshold, his arms crossed over his chest and his dark fall of hair obscuring the right side of his face. His visible eye scrutinized Sora's face for a moment before he spoke again. "You should be more careful."

The mirror-boy stepped up beside Sora and inclined his head in a curt nod. "Zexion. I thought you were on the wall."

"I came to check on the Queen's seal," Zexion said. "And a good thing, too – your reflection could've lost himself in the witch's pictures. I thought you would've taken more care with the Keybearer, XIII."

"Keybearer?" a new voice piped up. Zexion frowned in irritation as his clothing began to rustle. Sora could only stare as a tiny figure crawled out of the hood of the slate-haired man's coat and perched on his shoulder. "_The_ Keybearer?"

"Why'd you bring the bug, Zexion?" the blond boy asked.

Zexion shrugged, raising a hand to flick the insect off of his shoulder. "I must have picked him up in the archives."

The tiny figure easily evaded the man's fingers, jumping from his shoulder and opening a tiny red umbrella, swaying as he drifted safely to the ground. "You brought the Keybearer _here_? The Balance –"

"The Balance is already broken," the blond boy cut in.

"You didn't even offer him a fresh change of clothing," the insect worried, closing the umbrella and tucking it underneath his arm as he strode toward Sora, who had to suppress an incredulous smile as he got a closer look at the thing – it was a cricket, dressed in tailcoat, wainscot, and top hat, his tiny spats squeaking against the floor.

"We have more pressing concerns at the moment," Zexion said blandly as another explosion sounded in the distance.

The cricket ignored him, coming to a halt in front of Sora and sweeping his hat off as he made a deep bow. "Jiminy Cricket, at your service."

Sora blinked, shook his head, then crouched down to peer even more closely at the tiny figure. "What…?"

"Ignore him," the blond boy advised. "He's just a memory too stubborn to fade."

"Really," Jiminy said, sounding put out. He motioned for Sora to lower a hand, hopping onto the boy's upturned palm. "I am His Majesty's record-keeper."

"And he forgot you, too," the mirror-boy muttered. "We don't have time for this – stay if you want. Sora." Sora glanced up at the sound of his name, and the blond boy sighed. "Just stay here, all right? Don't leave the throne room until I come back for you – no matter what you hear."

Zexion nodded and summoned a dark portal. "If you have things under control here I'll return to the wall. Keep an eye on him, bug." He stepped into the darkness and was gone.

The mirror-boy glanced back at the throne before he turned away and strode out through the doors. He grasped one of the handles and, with a grunt, pulled it closed, the hollow reverberation it made as it scraped over the jamb echoing against the room's bare walls. Panic formed a vise around Sora's chest as the second door began to swing closed, and he shot to his feet, the cricket stumbling back and forth in his palm, raising one tiny hand to keep a hold of his top hat. "Wait!" The other boy paused, and Sora floundered for something to say. "I – you…What's your name?"

The blond stared at him for a moment before he resumed pulling the door closed. "Roxas."

The massive door slammed shut, and he was gone.

Sora sighed, tangling his free hand in his hair and tugging lightly. He glanced over his shoulder at the girl slumped on the throne, but turned away hurriedly when he felt his eyes being drawn back to the pictures on the wall behind her.

"You can sit if you'd like," Jiminy said from his palm, straightening the sleeves of his coat. "We may be in here for a while."

Sora blinked down at him before he sat gingerly on the throne's raised dais, careful to make sure he couldn't glimpse the pictures behind him from the corner of his eye. "What's going on out there?" he asked, tilting his palm so the cricket could jump down onto his knee.

"Why, a war, of course," Jiminy replied. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm actually surprised they waited as long as they did to break the Balance and bring you over – Maleficent's far stronger than anyone expected." When Sora only stared at him blankly, the cricket's brow wrinkled. "You know, Maleficent. The Queen of Darkness? Surely you…" He trailed off, shaking his head at Sora's expression. "You really _don't_ know. What _are_ they teaching you these days?"

"Lots of things," Sora muttered dispiritedly, propping his chin in his hand.

"Well – if you say so," Jiminy said, sounding doubtful.

"Look, can we just…sit? And not talk," Sora said, closing his eyes as he massaged his temples.

"If you like," Jiminy said, settling his umbrella across his legs as he sat.

There was a long silence, occasionally punctuated by the distant sounds of battle. Sora sat with his eyes closed, one hand working rhythmically against his forehead as he tried to digest all that had happened since he'd woken. "They're not going to let me go home, are they?" he asked at last, opening his eyes.

Jiminy shook his head. "Well...no, I wouldn't think so. They may have done this thing poorly, but they were given an oath by the King. They'll hold you to it."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the Keybearer," the cricket said.

"What does that even _mean_?" Sora groaned, cradling his head in his hand again.

"It means you have to fight," Axel said, black wisps flowing around him as he stepped out of the darkness.

"What do you want?" Sora asked, edging away from him. Axel only reached down and wrapped a hand around Sora's arm, dragging the boy to his feet. Jiminy jumped to the ground, one hand clapped to his hat. "Roxas told me to stay here," Sora said, tugging against the redhead's grip as Axel pulled him away from the throne.

"And I can't leave the castle," Jiminy interjected, hurrying after them.

Axel glanced back over his shoulder as the oily blackness opened before him. "Well thank Darkness for small favors." Sora only had time to take a breath to scream before Axel shoved him into the darkness.


	5. eviF

(A/N): This chapter took a little longer than I'd anticipated - sorry 'bout that. But, um - baaaattle scenes. I couldn't help it, I love writing these suckers. Also, I've put up a poll regarding _Waiting _on my profile page for anybody who'd like to check that out. And as I made a _massive_ double batch of chocolate chip cookies earlier, have a virtual cookie as an apology for the lateness of this chapter. (Yeah, it's late. I'm rambling. It's all good.)

Disclaimer: I have yet to cheat, lie, or steal my way into the possession of the rights for these characters. I am suitably disheartened.

eviF

The scream Sora had been building toward died in his throat as the darkness swallowed him. Axel's grip on his arm fell away, and he immediately tried to spin back toward the portal they'd come through, but the blackness surrounding him was complete. Absolute. Sora turned in another direction, already disoriented, eyes beginning to ache with the strain of trying to give the darkness some sort of definition, to find some point of reference with which to discern his position in all that blackness.

There was nothing. No light, no horizon, no up, no down – no sense of space or direction at all. Breaths growing shallower, on the edge of hyperventilating, Sora took a step forward, extending his hands out in front of him. It was impossible to tell if he'd actually managed to change his position, and a sharp sense of vertigo rose up within him as he took another step, and another, mouth dry and heart pounding.

An unseen hand manacled his wrist, and this time Sora did scream, a raw, primal sound that ripped its way up his throat and exploded into the sky as he stepped out of the darkness and into the middle of a war.

Sensation slammed back into him all at once, and he staggered under the onslaught of scent, sight, and sound. There was smoke everywhere, and inhuman screams rent the air, clawing their way down the inside of Sora's skull. Axel had pulled him out of the darkness at the edge of a skyscraper's roof, so close Sora didn't even have to lean over to stare down the face of the building toward the ground far below – and the battle being waged over every inch of it. Hundreds of sub-human _things_ were spread across the field of combat, black on white, crashing against one another with steel and teeth and claws, shrieks of pain and triumph mingled with the sounds of tearing flesh and the scrape of bone against steel; as quickly as they were cut down more rose from nothing, their bodies twisting and writhing in ways that shouldn't be possible. Sora wrenched backwards and out of Axel's grasp with a thin cry, head reeling – he dropped to his knees behind the redhead, his fingernails scraping against concrete as he braced his hands against the roof and waited for his empty stomach to finish trying to turn itself inside out.

"_What the hell do you think you're __**doing**__?_"

A black-coated figure dropped out of a dark portal to land heavily beside them, booted feet kicking up clouds of dust and detritus. "Relax," Axel said as Roxas straightened and threw back his dark hood, "I didn't break him."

"Take him _back_," Roxas snarled. "_**Now.**_"

"Why would I want to do that?" Axel asked.

"You _know_ why!"

"Ah, I think we're too late – take a look."

Sora spit out another mouthful of bile, trying to blink the tears out of his eyes as his entire frame shuddered with the force of the voices ripping through him. Trembling, tears sliding down his cheeks, he turned and crawled back to the edge of the roof, fingers curling around the lip as he stared out over the battlefield. Thousands of glowing yellow eyes stared back at him from a sea of darkness, the shadows standing motionless, heedless of their white counterparts, who jumped upon their sudden advantage and began slaughtering them left and right.

"They'll tear the Queen's seal apart to get at him if we take him back now," Axel said.

Sora gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, hands gripping the building so tightly the knuckles turned white. He could _hear_ them in his head, their voices flowing and ebbing like the tide, just this side of being truly audible, and though he couldn't understand their words he could comprehend the shape of their thoughts – they'd been locked away for so long, centuries since they had last seen light, and here was _Light_, standing before them, and they were so _hungry_…

Time seemed to stretch and thin – Sora was painfully aware of his heart beating in his chest, the rush of blood in his ears and air in his lungs, and for a moment between heartbeats time lay down and was still. He hung suspended between seconds for what felt like forever, staring helplessly out over the uplifted faces of the shadow army with the taste of bile still burning in his throat and the salty tracks of his tears drying on his cheeks.

When at last his next heartbeat thundered through his body, a shudder passed through the nearest shadows, racing outward like ripples in a pond, and Sora's mind echoed with their wordless howls as all hell broke loose.

They surged forward as one, oblivious of the enemies that stood between them and their goal, tearing mindlessly at any obstacle they came across, scrambling over the dissolving bodies and destroyed buildings, their eyes never leaving the brown-haired boy suspended far above them. "Here they come," Axel observed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at, Axel?" Roxas asked grimly as the first wave of shadows began their frenzied ascent up the side of the building. Axel grinned, eyes shining with an eerie intensity in the half-light, before he pursed his lips and blew a short, sharp whistle. Below them, the front line of advancing shadows stumbled, then disappeared, melting away with high-pitched shrieks as pale, razor-sharp appendages emerged from the side of the wall and sliced cleanly through them. Their comrades threw themselves forward, claws scrabbling against concrete, but found nothing there, screaming in stupefied surprise when a fresh onslaught fell on them from a different direction. Sora caught fleeting glimpses of pale shapes undulating through the wall as if it were water, but they were vague, fragmented sightings that confused more than elucidated, and he shut his eyes again, arms quaking with the sustained effort of clinging to the edge of the roof.

"Sora."

Gloved fingers brushed against the skin beneath the collar of his shirt, and he started forward, eyes popping open as he felt his center of balance shift too far to correct, one hand slipping from its perch and flailing helplessly at empty air. A hand fisted itself around his shirt and jerked him back, remaining knotted in the fabric as Roxas spoke above him. "Move away from the ledge." He slipped his free hand beneath the brown-haired boy's arm, directing his next words at Axel. "That won't hold them forever."

As Sora allowed the blond to pull him to his feet, he saw that Roxas was right – although the shadows' unseen adversaries continued to cut them down with impunity, countless more pressed forward, crawling _through_ the dissolving bodies of their allies in places, gaining ground an inch at a time by virtue of their overwhelming numbers and relentless tenacity. Dark claws lunged through the air, sinking into one of the pale limbs, and the creature was dragged, shrieking, from the wall; Sora had a brief glimpse of a vaguely human, stoop-shouldered shape before the shadows swarmed over it, ripping at it with teeth and claws. Its dying screams echoed in Sora's ears as he turned away.

"Maybe we should ask the Keybearer to save us," Axel mused, toes poking out over the edge of the roof as he watched the shadows' advance. He glanced up when Roxas didn't answer, arching an eyebrow at the blond's expression. "What? Isn't that what he's here for?" He cut his gaze over to Sora, sagging in the other boy's grip, and a mocking grin creased his lips as he spread his arms wide. "Come on kid, you're the big hero – what're you waiting for?" Sora could only stare back, wide-eyed and still trembling slightly from shock. Axel snorted and leaned back out over the ledge.

"I should turn you into a Dusk myself," Roxas said, voice low and hard.

"Relax, Rox," Axel sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. "I planned on him being pretty much useless."

Roxas's eyes narrowed. "You planned."

"Yes, Roxas, I do that on occasion," Axel rejoined dryly, crossing his arms over his chest again as he paced along the edge of the roof. "Believe it or not, I'm trying to keep the kid alive. _And_ keep the castle secure. You know they'd keep trying to force their way through the seal with him inside. This way – look at them." He swept an arm toward the fight still raging on the face of the building. "They're so focused on him they can't even think straight. They're completely out of her control." His eyes locked with Roxas's. "We just have to keep him alive until _she_ shows up."

"She won't," Roxas said.

"She has to," Axel shot back. "She wants him, too – and he won't be much good to her if her pets rip his heart out, will he?"

There was a tense moment of silence between them as they each attempted to stare the other down. Finally, Roxas's fingers tightened around Sora's arm. "Xemnas can't have approved this."

Axel shrugged, smile sharp and completely unapologetic. The blond's breath hissed out between his clenched teeth before he turned sharply on his heel, jerking Sora along behind him. "Fine," he muttered darkly.

He pulled Sora to the center of the roof, swinging him around so that they were facing each other, gripping the brown-haired boy's arms with bruising force. "Sora." Sora blinked, eyes glassy as he tried to filter through the haze of voices in his head and concentrate on Roxas's words. "I'm sorry, but we can't take you back. _Stay here_ and don't move, all right?" Not waiting for an answer, he released Sora and stepped back as several white figures materialized before him, hands resting on the hilts of their swords. Roxas pointed at Sora. "Protect the Keybearer. _Nothing_ gets past you, do you understand me?" The creatures bowed their masked heads in unison before turning and rapidly aligning themselves in a circle around the brown-haired boy, facing outwards. Sora shrank away from them, reaching for the keychain in his pocket. Roxas spared him one last look. "They'll keep you safe," he said, drawing his hood back up around his face as he turned back toward Axel.

A mirthless grin stretched the redhead's lips as his fingers flexed, and darkness and flame raced down his arms, coalescing into two wickedly pointed wheels that spun just beyond the redhead's reach until he grabbed them out of the air. "Here we go," he muttered as the first clawed limb grasped the edge of the roof. The shadow's head quickly followed, glowing eyes fixed on Sora, but before it could pull itself up any further the entire perimeter of the roof burst into flame. It jerked backward with a startled howl, losing its grip and disappearing from sight as it hurtled toward the ground far below.

More dark shapes appeared beyond the wall of fire, and Sora could only watch as they prowled along the flames, searching for a way in. Axel adopted a loose fighting stance, feet spread wide as his weapons swung from his fingers, occasionally sending a wheel caroming through the flames to tear through a shadow's body. Sora held the keychain wrapped in both hands, thrust in front of him in a defensive posture as he spun around and around, stumbling over his own feet as he tried to keep all of the dark silhouettes in sight at once. His heart was pounding a painful tattoo against his ribs, pushing a fresh wave of voices the keychain did nothing to dampen through him with each beat; his knees were threatening to buckle, but he knew if he went down he'd never manage to get back on his feet again.

"Axel!"

Both Sora and Axel spun toward the source of the cry to find Roxas running toward the wall of fire, eyes fixed on the shadows being forced through the blaze by the ranks behind them, falling, smoking, smothering the flames even as they faded away. A high-pitched ringing filled the air, and two blades appeared with twin bursts of light and darkness in Roxas's hands. Sora only had time to register that one blade was white and the other was black before Roxas was on top of the advancing shadows, stabbing and slashing with such speed and precision it made Sora's head spin.

Axel cursed under his breath as another group of shadows pushed through the fire, his fingers tightening around his weapons before the metal burst into flame in his hands. Sora stumbled back a step, a startled shout escaping his throat, but the redhead didn't seem to feel the heat as the flames licked at his gloves – he threw both weapons at the advancing shadows, their razor-tipped edges slicing easily through dark flesh and lopping off limbs and heads, the flames burning what they didn't cut. After their initial pass, the wheels swung back on themselves, tearing through the black throng a second time before being snatched out of the air by Axel, the redhead's boots crunching over the loose gravel of the roof as he darted forward, throwing himself into their midst.

The next few minutes were a blur to Sora, nothing more than a series of disjointed images and sounds all mixed up with the voices screaming in his head and the stark, unrelenting fear tearing through him with every breath.

Roxas spun between the shadows, blades flashing, shearing through flesh and bone. One of the creatures leapt at his head; he ducked under it, slicing it in half length-wise with the white blade before he planted a hand on the ground and swept his leg out in a roundhouse kick, knocking his assailants backwards –

Axel's voice was little more than a frustrated growl as he danced away from a shadow's assault, slashing his weapon at it with one hand as he threw a spout of flame with the other. "Get back!" As the creatures pressed too close for him to swing his arms freely, he released the weapons, and they began to spin around his body at an increasingly rapid pace, until a roaring column of fire engulfed him, the intense heat forcing the shadows back –

Roxas stabbed both blades into a shadow's body, back muscles contorting beneath his black coat as he ripped the weapons out through the creature's sides, kicking its dissolving body away from him as he turned away, coming face-to-face with another shadow, already inside his guard –

And a burning wheel tore through the creature's body, Roxas not even having a chance to voice any thanks before moving to cut down the next one –

A shadow leapt at Axel's unguarded side – the redhead caught it by the throat, fingers digging into the thing's neck, black on black, before the small body exploded into flame, the creature writhing and shrieking in Axel's grip for a moment before he flung it away –

Sora wanted to scream, to clap his hands over his ears and shut his eyes until it all went away and he woke up in his own bed again, bathed in a cold sweat and trembling uncontrollably but _safe_… But this was _happening_, this was _real_, and if he started screaming he didn't think he'd ever be able to stop.

Though Roxas and Axel fought viciously, a few shadows managed to slip past them, and the white creatures ringed around Sora brought their swords to bear in one smooth movement, masked faces giving no hint of their thoughts. They stood motionless, not even seeming to breathe, until the black bodies came into range – then they surged forward and drew in one smooth movement, cutting the creatures in half and returning to their original positions in the blink of an eye. Sora shied first one way and then the other between them, pulse throbbing through his veins so hard he was afraid his heart might explode. He was holding the keychain so tightly his hands had locked into position around it, the muscles so rigid they hurt, but he couldn't loosen his grip.

The shadows continued to surge forward, throwing themselves on Axel and Roxas's weapons, more and more slipping past them with every second, and Sora's guardians began to struggle under the increasing strain. Roxas smashed the dull edge of his blade into a shadow's head, using its back as a stepping stone with which to launch himself into the air, over the heads of its allies, trying to get closer to Sora. "Axel!" he bellowed, slashing at every limb that came in range. "We can't hold them – we have to get him out!" Axel grunted an acknowledgement, turning and sending his weapons spiraling through the surrounding shadows, trying to open an avenue to the brown-haired boy, but as quickly as they were cut down more were shoved forward by the sheer number of shadows behind _them_, and the redhead's progress remained painfully slow. "Sora!" Roxas shouted, grimly attempting to cut a path toward the other boy. "We're coming!"

Sora couldn't find the voice to answer, but he nodded jerkily. In front of him, the shadows pulled down one of his pale protectors. Another stepped out of thin air to take its place, but almost immediately another to its left was dragged down and torn apart. The remaining guardians tightened the circle around Sora, until he barely had room to move; when Roxas saw what was happening he redoubled his efforts, cursing the mass of shadows that stood between them. "Axel, get him out of there _now_!"

The shadows swarmed forward, claws latching on to the legs of one of Sora's guardians before they scrambled up its body, ripping it to shreds with every step. The first shadow to reach the dying guardian's head paused, clawed limbs sunk deeply into the other creature's shoulders as it fixed its glowing eyes on Sora. Sora stumbled back a step, keychain held before him like a talisman, unable to tear his gaze away from the shadow's face, featureless except for those horrible yellow eyes.

Roxas swept both blades in a tight, controlled arc, darting forward into the small opening it afforded him, stabbing one shadow through the head as he knocked another away from him with a forearm. "Sora!"

The shadow launched itself forward, claws tearing one last chunk out of the decomposing guardian's body, and Sora's world narrowed to the sight of the black body hurtling toward him, backlit by the undulating clouds of smoke obscuring the sky behind it. He thrust his hands out in a futile effort to protect himself, and then the thing collided with him, clawed hands slashing at his skin as its momentum bowled the both of them over backward. They slammed into the surface of the roof – Sora's head struck the rough concrete hard enough to rebound, and for a few seconds the world receded into a gray haze.

"_Sora_!"

Slowly, the world solidified around him once again. He had landed with his body twisted on the rubble-strewn roof, one cheek pressed against the unyielding surface and his right hand caught in something cold and metallic. There was already a knot forming where his head had smacked against the unyielding surface, and his arms were bleeding from half a dozen deep lacerations where the shadow's claws had scored him – but it was no longer attacking him. Where was it? The fingers of Sora's right hand clenched around the foreign object they were tangled in as a spike of adrenaline shot through his system, and he forced an eye open with a groan.

The shadow was splayed next to him on the roof, and he recoiled at the sight of the creature's glowing yellow eyes, less than a foot away from his own, but it didn't follow him. He paused, adrenaline still screaming through his body, and waited for it to throw itself at him again, but it only extended a hand toward his chest, claws jerking open and closed in irregular spasms.

Why wasn't it attacking him?

Lifting his head from its prone position almost caused him to pass out, but Sora grit his teeth and used his free hand to lever himself into a kneeling position. The object in his right hand shifted, nearly costing him his precarious new-found balance, and the heel of his left palm scraped against the roof as he used it to brace himself, muscles quivering. He rested in that position a moment, eyes closed as he waited for the sensation that he was going to be horribly sick to pass, but something tugged at his right arm again and he forced his eyes open with a convulsive swallow.

The shadow was pinned to the roof by a giant blade, the hilt of which was the object Sora's hand was tangled around. As he watched, the shadow twitched forward, claws still grasping at air, and Sora's arm followed its movement. Sora's lips skinned back in a breathless shout as he jerked backward, and after a moment of resistance, the head of the blade wrenched loose of the shadow's body. Almost immediately, the creature began to break apart and vanish. Sora scrambled backward, staring at the blade in his hand. It looked…like a giant key. "What…"

He collided with one of the white creatures surrounding him and recoiled instinctively, clambering to his feet and spreading his legs wide in an effort to keep from collapsing back to the ground. Blood dripped in red rivulets down his arms, splattering the ground around his feet, and a laceration above his left eye throbbed in time to his heartbeat. The shadows gibbered and shrieked outside his circle of protection, and Sora flinched away before he froze, eyes wide. He couldn't – he couldn't hear them anymore. Their screams echoed in his ears, but for the first time since emerging from the darkness the only thoughts in his head were his own. The key-shaped blade thrummed in his hands, a sub-audible rhythm that sent bone-deep reverberations surging through his body; Sora clasped both hands around the hilt, holding it uncertainly in front of him as he peered at its design more closely.

The cut of the teeth resembled a crown.

His heart leapt in his chest, seeming to synchronize its beat to the pulsations washing through his body. An odd, tingling warmth enveloped him, flowing from his torso and through his limbs into each extremity, until it felt as every finger and every toe was humming with barely-contained energy, each individual cell super-charged with some incredible unknown power. Light bent and refracted around the tip of his blade, brightening as a sudden wind sprang up from nowhere, tugging Sora's hair and clothing first one way, then another. The blossom of radiance grew and intensified until he had to squint his eyes against the glare of it – the ground beneath him took on an unearthly glow, strands of light rippling through the concrete like water. He was dimly aware of a dismayed shout sounding from somewhere close by before the light enveloped him completely, reducing his vision to a wash of white and filling his ears with the sound of rushing wind.

For a few endless moments he remained in a strange sort of stasis, his sphere of existence consisting of nothing more than the light and wind swirling around him. It was…soothing. He felt impossibly refreshed, better than he had at any point since being dragged through the mirror and into this bizarre situation.

For a second he thought he caught a flash of movement beyond the wall of light, and then one of Roxas's blades tore through it, spinning past Sora's face mere inches from his nose; both the wind and the light faltered as the brown-haired boy flinched backward with a shout. As the last of the luminescence faded and died away Sora looked up to find he was suddenly alone on the roof with Roxas and Axel – the shadows had vanished.

The other two were regarding him with equally cryptic expressions. Roxas's hands hung empty at his sides, and his eyes were flat and unreadable beneath the dark brim of his hood. Axel was clutching his right arm against his body, the wash of blood from a deep gash in his bicep almost invisible against his dark clothing. Neither of them said a word until the redhead stepped forward, lips curving upward in a strained grin. "Not bad, kid," he said, reaching out a blood-stained glove and gently pushing the tip of Sora's blade toward the ground. "But you should watch where you're aiming that thing."

Sora's gaze leapt from the empty roof to the wound in the redhead's arm, to Axel's face, and down to the strange weapon still clutched in his hands. "But I didn't –" He looked back at the blood dripping down Axel's arm. "Did I?" Axel only looked at him. Aghast, Sora let the weapon drop, and it disappeared in a burst of light upon striking the roof, only to reappear in his hand a second later. "_What_ –"

"Axel."

They both turned to look at Roxas, who was gazing at the shadows already clambering over the edge of the roof once again, glowing eyes fixed on Sora. Roxas's weapons appeared in his hands once again, and this time Sora saw that the blades resembled highly stylized keys. "Get him out of here," the blond said flatly.

Axel regarded the shadows with a bitter sort of amusement before replying. "Whatever you say, Rox," he said, flicking a hand at the air behind him. Sora recoiled as a dark portal tore itself into existence. "C'mon, kid."

Sora backed away from him, eyes wide and nostrils flaring, heedless of the shadows swarming toward him. He unconsciously raised his weapon in a defensive posture, his hands shaking as he contemplated being forced back into that featureless non-existence.

Axel and Roxas exchanged glances shaded with a mixture of amusement and frustration before the redhead sighed. "Have it your way," he muttered. He darted forward, plucking Sora up and unceremoniously throwing him over a bony shoulder like a sack of flour. "I've got him," he announced, one arm locked around the back of Sora's knees. Sora's breath _whooshed_ out of him as Axel's shoulder pressed into his stomach, and, disoriented by his sudden change of position, he clung to the back of the redhead's jacket with his free hand. "Don't drop that Keyblade, kid," Axel muttered as he launched himself forward, letting the portal fade away behind him.

Sora was bounced and jolted with every step, until he was half-convinced he was going to wind up with a permanent bruise across his midriff. Pushing himself up as best he was able, he strained his head around to try and see where they were going. Roxas fell into step beside the redhead, and together they dove back into the advancing shadows' midst.

Roxas ran out in front, cutting a path through the creatures with his blades; Axel followed close behind, destroying the few the blond missed with fire and steel. As the edge of the skyscraper's roof came into view, Roxas spun to face the direction from which they'd come, weapons crossed protectively over his body. "Keep him safe," he muttered as they flashed past him.

"Roxas!" Sora screamed as the shadows fell upon the other boy. "Axel, wait!" If the redhead heard him, he didn't acknowledge it, and Sora's mouth went dry when he twisted his head around to find that they were still flying toward the edge of the roof. "No, wait – wait!" Axel ignored him, foot coming down so close to the edge his toes poked over. Momentum pushed them on, Axel's body tilting forward in the beginnings of a fall, until Sora could once more look straight down the side of the building. "_Axel_!"

They hung there for what felt like an eternity until gravity finally took over and they dropped, plummeting toward the ground far below.


End file.
